I’m on the fifth draft for Project Succession and as I’m writing it I am believing that the sixth draft will be the story that I envisioned all along. It took me five drafts to come to the conclusion that draft six will become what the story should’ve been. I’m not done with the fifth draft and have five chapters left, but this makes me want to get a jump start on the sixth draft. Draft six is what the story should’ve been since draft zero or one, but it didn’t get to that point. I had to get a feel of the story before getting to this part, towards the end of draft five.
My question to all of you: Have you ever gone through many drafts to come to the realization that things were starting to click in a way that it hasn’t before? Sorry if that doesn’t make sense. I didn’t know how to word this.
Happens all the time! Sometimes just because I’ve sat on the story for a while and the little goblin in my brain spat out an improved idea, sometimes because a beta reader pointed out something that added another dimension to the story.
It can be frustrating if you get stuck writing and rewriting without ever being sure that you’ve come to the final version but it’s part of the process
Oh yes, all the time. Like, right now, idk how many drafts I went through for Project Pinti. I don’t even want to know how many it is just for chapter one Definitely more than six drafts…
Yes, lmao. You know what the worse thing is? If I watch a TV series or a movie that reminds me of one of my characters… I’ll want to add more ideas to it based on it usually
That feels like the point of drafts, no? Sometimes you’re not quite sure where the destination is, some parts are clear, the rest is fuzzy. But the more you write, the clearer that journey becomes. Sometimes it even takes you places you weren’t planning. In the prequel I have now, there are characters and backstories that didn’t exist when I started, but the longer the story sits in my head, the more complex it gets. Which is great! And terrible at the same time.
I am trying my best with my two ONC entries and one is flowing easier than the other, but I will get back to the other soon when I write more of the first one.
Yeah, at times it takes a lot of drafts a bit of time to come through, other times I think of them and I shelve them until I have a clearer view of things, and other times, they just click and I start them right away. I think it’s just the natural way of things. Some things just click easier than others, and you have to work with that, you know? It’s alright to shelve things and wait for a better time to re-write/edit them. Same with ideas.
Definitely more than six drafts…
I am trying my best with my two ONC entries and one is flowing easier than the other, but I will get back to the other soon when I write more of the first one.