Redrafts

[Cinninamon]

A friend and I have started our second draft of a book we're writing together and I was wondering how many drafts people tend to write before they're pleased with the entire thing? I'm certain we'll write a third and probably a fourth, but is there a general number of drafts people stick to or do they just keep rewriting until they're happy with the outcome?

 

[Steerpike]

I try very hard not to rewrite. I'll do a first draft, then go back through and pick out problem areas to fix, and then call it done

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

The number of revisions will be very different for each author. Where Steerpike performs minimal rewrites, I do several. Each rewrite I do is focused towards a specific improvement... Description, natural sounding dialogue, characterization, etc.

 

[ThinkerX]

It varies.

Currently, I'm in the process of bringing my older works up to par. So, counting those versions as the 'first draft', I find I'm usually looking at two rewrites.

The tales I do for the challenge stories now...those are much, much quicker: a first draft, and then a second draft for edit and minor plot fixes.

That said, there are parts of some works where I'm up to something like seven or eight rewrites.