What is a first draft?

[skip.knox]

I did a search on that title and didn't find much, which rather surprised me. If it's been discussed, please point me to the thread.

This came up from a post from Philip Overby in his series here on Mythic Scribes
Cover to Cover III: Owning a First Draft

In a comment I asked what constituted a first draft? How does an author distinguish between a first draft and a second draft?

So I thought I'd ask the question, and offer my own definition to start things off.

A First Draft is a story that I'm ready to show to a beta reader. It's a story that is as done as I can get it without feedback from others.

A Second Draft is a story that is as done as I can get it without feedback from professionals. In other words, it's the story I am willing to send out to an agent or to an editor.

A Third Draft is a story that has been through the previous two. I'm actively marketing the thing, or it's been accepted for publication, and I'm not going to make any more changes to it. This draft is called Completed, in the Common Tongue.

I hear folks talk about "now I'm editing, now I'm writing" but I've never been able to separate the two so clearly. It's all just writing, to me, so I don't have an "editing draft" stage.


How does the above align with how you think about your work? Do you think there are any practical benefits or consequences to how one thinks about these stages of development?

 

[ThinkerX]

Hmmm...

First draft - story on 'paper' (or screen). Lots of plot bugs big and small, lots of grammar issues. Something to work from.

Second draft - cleaned up, most plot bugs fixed, as are most grammar issues. Presentable to beta readers.

Third draft - plot bugs and grammar issues taken care of to the best of the authors ability.

 

[Caged Maiden]

I always get confused when people say things like, "I'm on draft five of this novel."

For me, there's a first draft, which I know is flawed and needs work. It might be first words on paper-rough, or passed a few crits and mostly cleaned up, but it's still the first draft=not finished and not my proudest work.

Second draft is when I'm moving into the more advanced stages of editing. I'm cleaning up not plot holes and cutting whole scenes, but tightening up already good scenes and making the manuscript shine. When second draft is finished, it's as good as I can get it, using all my resources. It's ready for an agent or to self-publish if I don't want to get it professionally edited.

If say, I were maybe changing a big portion of the book, I might go into another version of the second draft. Perhaps an alternate ending sort of thing? I don't know. I don't do that, but maybe I would? I think mostly, when people discuss "fifth drafts" what they are talking about is what I call editing passes. For instance, when I'm done with the first draft, the next thing I do is go through the whole book, as quick as I can (so I don't forget stuff), and tighten everything major up. I leave stilted dialogues, weak descriptions, sometimes even plot holes I can't sort out until I get the really big things squared away. After that, I do a pass where I just look at each scene and analyze its goals and whether those goals make it strong enough to keep or whether it just needs to be cut. Then I work smaller and smaller, usually from beginning to end in one pass, tightening up narrative, strengthening up dialogues, using the thesaurus on overused words, etc.

I'd imagine if I began editing at chapter one and went through it, trying to clean everything up at once, I might have to do several major overhauls to catch everything, connect everything, and generally improve the book. I always assumed that's what people meant, anyways. I'd like clarification on it, too. I mean, I just spent eight months editing a book from "first draft" (edited, polished, not quite there yet and had to pass through a multitude of readers) to "second draft" (I'm 95% happy with it and it's the best I can do, and I tried my darndest to satisfy all those who had critiques, but maintained my own voice and style and now I want to send it to agents). In those eight months, I rewrote scenes sometimes twice or more, struggling to strike the right balance. But I considered the process all one edit.

 

[Penpilot]

Here's how I generally define my drafts.

1st Draft - Everything is raw. Some elements may be developed, others not. More elements need to be added. Spelling and grammar may be an issue. And there may be some huge plot holes. The fundamental framework for the story may be shaky, but it's basic shape is there.

2nd Draft - Most big plot holes should be plugged. Most elements are in place, but all still need developing. Spelling and grammar may still be a problem, but not so big as to hinder readability or understanding. The fundamental framework for the story is in place.

3rd Draft - All big plot holes should be plugged. All elements should be in place and are being refined. Spelling and grammar problems still around.

4th Draft - Everything is 90% there. It's all about polishing now. This is where spelling and grammar problems get picked off as sentence structure and word choice get refined.

Final Draft - There may still be problems, but they should only be minor. The story is as good as one can make it with your present skill set.

Within each draft, there may be many-many editing passes. In some cases as many as a couple of dozen. And sometimes I have to drop down a draft because I missed something big or decided to add something big. This is all pretty inexact, but it's generally how I work, so when I tell someone this is my 4th draft, they have permission to kick me in the butt hard for big plot holes and big grammar faux pas.

 

[deilaitha]

I personally think of drafts in terms of editing passes:

0 passes: first draft (has just been written; probably pretty terrible and in need of major fixes)
1 pass: second draft (much less terrible, needs refining)
2 passes: third draft (pretty decent--ready to be critiqued by others)
3 passes: fourth draft (suggested improvements have been made--it's in really good shape, but you nitpick it relentlessly for potential problems)
...
n passes: final draft (it's as good as you can make it and you finally stop fiddling around with it)

So, mathematically,

n passes=(n + 1)th draft, where n is an integer greater than or equal to 0.

 

[PaulineMRoss]

For writers, you people have a surprisingly fluid definition of the word 'first'. Here's my scenario:

First draft: The story's been written from beginning to end, it's complete but basically unedited (although I edit somewhat as I write).
Second draft: It's been revised by me, but nobody's seen it.
Third draft: It's been revised to incorporate external feedback.
Fourth draft: It's received a final polish and proofread - ready to roll.

 

[Telcontar]

I think I like your definition of first draft, skip: Something I'm ready to show to beta readers. That about fits what I think as well.

Because I'm writing and editing on a computer, there's no such thing as an actual "first" draft. By the time I've gotten to the end I've inevitably fiddled with some of the middle bits already - at least, on any sizable work, 10k+. Thank gosh I don't have to try and use version control with my writing...

 

[skip.knox]

Telcontar, I share the same experience. I baffled by the notion that a first draft is the complete story, regardless of the number of plot holes, because I have never been able to start and the start, then keep going until I hit the end. I jump around, with the Great Swampy Middle often being the last that gets written. This applies even to quite short stories. By the time I have anything resembling a complete story, it's been changed and edited uncounted times. For me, revision is an uninterrupted process that begins almost with the second day of writing.

As Pauline Ross says, it's ... interesting (not her word) ... how many different definitions there are. So now I have a follow-up question. Is all this merely a difference of opinion, a natural fluidity of definition, otherwise insignificant? Or are there practical consequences to this? Might there be some advantage in choosing one definition over another?

Again, not to play coy, I'll offer my own answer first. This can become an issue when communicating with others; specifically, in two places: when communicating with a beta reader or editor, and when communicating with anyone involved with a deadline.

What's really surprising is that there's no industry-standard definition of what constitutes First Draft, Second Draft, etc. It seems like the sort of thing editors and agents would have settled among themselves long ago.

One further comment is worth making. This whole notion of drafts derives, I should think, from the world of paper. A "draft" was simply the story physically written out, regardless of how unfinished it was. Said draft might well be sent to an editor, especially if one had already been published. The second draft was the next version you put in the mail, and so on. The language is tied to the physical experience.

Digital has changed the experience, but not yet the language.

 

[Chessie]

For writers, you people have a surprisingly fluid definition of the word 'first'. Here's my scenario:

First draft: The story's been written from beginning to end, it's complete but basically unedited (although I edit somewhat as I write).
Second draft: It's been revised by me, but nobody's seen it.
Third draft: It's been revised to incorporate external feedback.
Fourth draft: It's received a final polish and proofread - ready to roll.

Describes me, too. My first drafts are usually info dumps where I'm just getting the story on paper. I don't like to edit a first draft if there are any plotholes or major questions. The other passes are for strengthening the story.

Skip, to answer your question, I like to remain fluid with this process because every story is different. Some require more passes than others.

 

[Penpilot]

Telcontar, I share the same experience. I baffled by the notion that a first draft is the complete story, regardless of the number of plot holes, because I have never been able to start and the start, then keep going until I hit the end. I jump around, with the Great Swampy Middle often being the last that gets written. This applies even to quite short stories. By the time I have anything resembling a complete story, it's been changed and edited uncounted times. For me, revision is an uninterrupted process that begins almost with the second day of writing.

Maybe a part of this is how you work. Are you an outliner or pantser? For me I work out the skeleton for my story with the key plot points for the, beginning, middle, and end known before I start my first draft. That's how I can have a finished story as a first draft. Also I found that editing too much before I've finished leads me to doing necessary work because sometimes when I reach the end I realize some of the beginning or middle has to go, and if I did significant editing on those sections, it's wasted effort. I take notes of what I think should change and move on.

Another thing for me is I don't find that I absolutely need feedback. It helps and it speeds up the process, but I feel that I can get to a point where the heart of the story is all there. And to me that's the most important part. The process after that is a lot simpler and the editing beyond this point tends to be window dressing.

As Pauline Ross says, it's ... interesting (not her word) ... how many different definitions there are. So now I have a follow-up question. Is all this merely a difference of opinion, a natural fluidity of definition, otherwise insignificant? Or are there practical consequences to this? Might there be some advantage in choosing one definition over another?

I don't think the definition matters. IMHO we all cover similar ground. The differences is only on how we slice the pie. The whole pie is still there. Well... actually it might matter if you're talking to an agent or a publisher. If you say first draft, I imagine they would expect a complete story with an ending.

 

[Ophiucha]

I define a draft as any 'full-length' re/write or revision of the story. Of which I average about eight before I have something I'm happy to send to an agent. To define each draft:

1. Write the novel, too rough for even the finest ATV to drive on.
2. Rewrite the novel, roughly.
3. Rewrite the novel, roughly but with some diamonds.
4. Rewrite the novel, roughly but with some diamonds and with the old diamonds mixed in.
5. Rewrite the novel, still roughly but with enough diamonds to be considered good.
6. Revise the novel, roughly and without input from others.
7. Revise the novel, mid-polish and with input from others.
8. Revise the novel, finishing the polishing and doing the nitty gritty edits (fixing grammar, mostly).

Anything before the first draft - scraps of scenes, first line testing, outlining, info dumping - is prewriting, and I do a fair amount of that as well. And I've done upwards of fifteen drafts, so it doesn't always go that smoothly. I don't think the definition really matters at all, since it leads to the same thing in the end. Just minor confusion between writers who define it differently.

 

[ACSmyth]

I normally reckon on somewhere around 8 passes. I tend to call them drafts when I'm still adjusting plot, character, and description, or sorting out scene transitions. Then edits when it's things like word choice and sentence construction that are getting my main attention.

My latest WIP has gone out to betas recently. It's what I would call 4th draft, and even so, it has gone out with notes of things I know are issues. For example, I know the scene transitions clunk like a clunky thing. I won't spend time smoothing those out properly until I'm sure no scenes will be coming out, and no more will be inserted. (Actually, there's a risk of that up to the bitter end, but I like my scene list to be 95% fixed before I start tiddling transitions up). Also, something is referenced in one of the final scenes that I haven't gone back and inserted yet, because I didn't appreciate I'd need it till I got to it. Stuff like that.

The next draft (or pass, if you prefer) will be sorting out those known problems and fixing anything that comes back from the betas that I think needs attention. Then I'll probably make 2 editing passes and send it to another lot of readers before it goes to my editor for typos, grammar, etc. So that will be my 8 passes/drafts depending on your terminology.

 

[Philip Overby]

I define a draft as any 'full-length' re/write or revision of the story. Of which I average about eight before I have something I'm happy to send to an agent. To define each draft:

1. Write the novel, too rough for even the finest ATV to drive on.
2. Rewrite the novel, roughly.
3. Rewrite the novel, roughly but with some diamonds.
4. Rewrite the novel, roughly but with some diamonds and with the old diamonds mixed in.
5. Rewrite the novel, still roughly but with enough diamonds to be considered good.
6. Revise the novel, roughly and without input from others.
7. Revise the novel, mid-polish and with input from others.
8. Revise the novel, finishing the polishing and doing the nitty gritty edits (fixing grammar, mostly).

Anything before the first draft - scraps of scenes, first line testing, outlining, info dumping - is prewriting, and I do a fair amount of that as well. And I've done upwards of fifteen drafts, so it doesn't always go that smoothly. I don't think the definition really matters at all, since it leads to the same thing in the end. Just minor confusion between writers who define it differently.

I really like this version. I may actually post this up somewhere while I'm trying to drive an ATV on my current draft.

 

[PaulineMRoss]

So now I have a follow-up question. Is all this merely a difference of opinion, a natural fluidity of definition, otherwise insignificant? Or are there practical consequences to this? Might there be some advantage in choosing one definition over another? Again, not to play coy, I'll offer my own answer first. This can become an issue when communicating with others; specifically, in two places: when communicating with a beta reader or editor, and when communicating with anyone involved with a deadline.

Yes, I think this is very true. It doesn't matter a toss what we ourselves mean by 'first draft', it only matters when it creates expectations in other people (whether good or bad). And when those expectations are far enough out of line to cause misunderstandings.

To me, 'first draft' implies a pretty rough, totally unpolished effort, and not something anyone would send to agents or even beta readers. Mind you, that's another term that has a multitude of definitions. What is a beta reader?

What's really surprising is that there's no industry-standard definition of what constitutes First Draft, Second Draft, etc. It seems like the sort of thing editors and agents would have settled among themselves long ago.

I suspect that each publishing house has its own internal definitions, but they would expect to be looking at something very well polished and not in the least rough (whatever you call that).