I am very much feeling that way with Project Succession. The way I’m rewriting it is what the old first draft should’ve been.
But have any of you ever felt that way about your first drafts? I am sure you might have felt that way.
So, I am pleased with the way things are going and how I want to edit it when I am finished with it. I want to call it the true first draft instead of the second draft, but I am unsure.
I am almost done with chapter 1, part 2 and will move on to part 3 soon enough.
That is only for the drafting stages not the final stages.
I’ve explained this I don’t know how many times and it appears I don’t know how to simplify it in a way you or anyone else can understand.
You know how in published stories there are parts like Part 1 and Part 2 and so on? Within each part there are a number of chapters. Part 1 has chapters 1 to 6 and Part 2 has chapters 7 to 12. So, look at any novel where you’ll find it as part 1: titled something or no title, chapter 1: titled something or no title.
The way I do it only for the drafting stages is I go chapter 1, parts 1-5 and chapters 2, parts 1-5. It is going in a weird reverse that is tricking myself in an odd way.
For Project Succession I have it like this.
Example (the titles are slightly correct):
Chapter 1: False Summoning of God.
Part 1: Birthday Mission.
Part 2: Crazy Quest Coming.
Have I explained this properly? I don’t know how else to better explain this.
My first draft looked nothing like my second draft. There was no plot or story structure at all and it was just me experimenting with the characters. I suppose it could feel like that draft wasn’t really the first draft since it barely resembled the story I’ve come up with now. But I still think of it as the first draft and the next as the second draft, because that’s just how first drafts are. Just because it doesn’t have the same story doesn’t mean it wasn’t the first stepping stone to getting there. The first draft is for brainstorming ideas, the second draft is for getting a solid storyline down, and the third is for refining it. If you have more drafts, they are just further refining it as well.
Well, unless people are going to be seeing different versions, your first draft is whichever one you feel is the first one! Congrats on getting so far along with it
You could call it that if you want. Honestly it doesn’t really matter what you call it because the one that matters most and that everyone will see is the final copy. Anything before that is just for you. I call it my first draft to avoid confusion and for simplicity’s sake. But if you feel zero draft is a better name for yours, there’s nothing wrong with that.
The second draft is where I do a lot of reorganizing and restructuring of the entire thing, so I could call it a first draft situation, but for me, personally, I still consider it a second draft. It is still the second time I’m working on the story as a whole, after all
