Anyway, the amount of drafts for editing and revising that we need to go through varies from writer to writer.
Some writers need at least ten drafts for it to even be published ready, other writers need like five for it to be publishable. Yet I always wondered if different genres require different amounts of drafts, that can or can’t always be the case.
As for me, I am editing as I write the story. I am currently on chapter 8 of my story, doing the very same thing. So, Red Reign is still a draft even though it is being edited as I write. I will say it is looking a slight rough in places, yet it isn’t too bad. That doesn’t mean it is anywhere near ready for me to think about publishing. I believe I do much better editing as I write because of the annoyance of not wanting to edit afterwards. I wished I did that with Project Succession. LOL!
Anyhoo, I am curious about how many drafts you guys do. What is your standard amount of drafts, depending on the genre and length of the story?
It’s also experience. Older things that I’ve put aside would need an edit to catch up with what I’ve learned today, and that makes for more edits due to maturation.
My first novel is in a rougher state than the current WIP is, despite both being first drafts, due to the difference in writing experience from then to now
Most of my stories (the ones couldn’t finished) were in the first draft. I only recently did a first and second draft when it came to Project Succession.
It depends.
On what you call a new draft
On what genre you write in.
Writing experience, style, etc.
Some of my earlier books I’ve had to rewrite from scratch. My most recent books don’t need as much editing but I also haven’t finished editing them so I can’t confidently say that the process will be faster. I guess that’s me hoping.
But in general, counting drafts isn’t compatible with my writing/editing style so I can’t even answer this question properly.
For longer works I tend to just vomit out the project and then rewrite. Atm though, it’s one and done. I write the thing and run through edits quickly with ProWritingAid - then it’s ready for publishing.
I don’t even count. I started doing that with Project Succession. I did a zero draft, rewrote into a first draft and did the same for the second draft which I didn’t finish.
Before and after finishing Project Naivin, I couldn’t even finish a novel, never mind rewriting the thing. I just struggled so hard.
So, I don’t even know what I am doing or even what I am counting! LOL!
Grammarly has always been quite bad, but it’s especially bad with fiction. ProWritingAid is great, well worth the price imo. Still makes some errors, like Grammarly, but nothing to the degree that Grammarly does.
ETA: It’s also made for fiction, so you can assess your work based on genre, authors, etc.
I can’t even use that. The free version was limited which I did use until I decided to use a paying option, which didn’t last long. The overall point is that I lack money for that. LOL!
Unfortunately I have no idea how good the free version is, but I assume it’ll be much the same as the paid version just without the bells and whistles, which aren’t really needed. I like the AI-gen reports about my writing style and plot/characters, as well as comparing myself to other established writers and whatnot though
