How I Wrote My Debut Novel: Part Five – Producing Drafts

How does a writer write? What is the process by which the first draft becomes the final draft? How does one ensure the next draft is better than the last? 

The answer I have for these questions is not original with me; however, it has become foundational to my process. 

I begin on the laptop. That first draft is all about getting as much as I know of the story down. With no care for form or function, I type until I believe I’ve emptied all I have onto the page. I then print that draft, set aside my laptop, grab a pencil, and begin hand-editing the draft. Sometimes I use scissors and tape to rearrange paragraphs. I mark up this draft, beginning to shape the prose by cutting it back and, on a separate piece of paper, creating a list of longer edits and additions. 

Once I reach the point again where I believe I’ve done all I can in editing the draft, I grab the laptop and rekey the second draft—from scratch. The magic that occurs is this: as I’m rekeying, twenty minutes will pass and I’ll realize I’ve not looked down at my edited draft, but am creating new material. This is a phenomena that doesn’t occur unless you rekey from scratch. This process untethers you from the text of the previous draft and allows you to separate the tasks of writing and editing. Each draft is a full rekey of an edited hardcopy of the previous draft.

So, your task is to try it. Adopt this process for a few drafts and see if it isn’t more productive than your current process. If it is, make it your own. If it isn’t, stick with what already works. In either case, let me know how it goes in the comments!