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The Five Essential Drafts
A glimpse of my writing process and why creating at least five drafts helps bring my stories to readers
9/7/20263 min read
The journey from an exciting idea to a publication-ready manuscript can be daunting. I used to be like most indie authors, more excited to get my stories to the world than making sure it’s as polished as possible. Over the last few years, I developed a writing process that helped reign in my eagerness to deliver. I call it my Five Essential Drafts.
Every story begins with an idea. Many of those ideas become plot points. And before I start clicking and clacking on the computer, I make sure I have at least five plot points. These plot points are like signposts for my characters to follow, however I realized it’s not always so cut and dry. I give my characters desires and flaws that shape their worldview so they may not follow the signposts the way I imagined them to. That allows me to freely write what their journey is without worrying about grammar, prose, structure or anything craft level. This draft is the skeleton, the framework to build upon so I can create the bigger picture.
The next draft focuses on structure. Is every scene and chapter creating forward momentum? Did I force a character to make a decision because the plot demands it or that is what they would naturally do? Are the themes subtle or being force fed to the audience? I take all of this into consideration during this draft when cutting something unnecessary or adding further context. Let’s call this draft: the connective tissue.
The next draft is my favorite! I focus on the prose. I love to write. Hell, I love to overwrite to show the many grooves in my brain. This is the part that gets me carried away because I want to use purple prose like a Sarah J Mass, quotable metaphors like a S.A. Cosby, or atmospheric writing like Lucy Foley. I want to take everything I learned from my years of dissecting stories and throw it into my own. I let myself go wild because I know I’ll condense most of it later. We’ll dub this draft: the muscles.
This next draft requires outside assistance. Even though I do my best to edit along the way during my previous draft, it is not my specialty. Readers won’t get past the first page if it's littered with poor spelling and grammar so I clean up the most glaring issues. Once the draft is cleaned up to some extent, I send it out to beta readers for feedback. This is where I take an extended break from my book and do what my clients call “touch grass”. Since I’m taking a step back for some time, I can look at my work more objectively and use the feedback from the community to create the final polish when ready. I knight this draft: the skin.
Last and certainly not least, the final draft. I take the collective feedback and make actionable edits. Everyone has preferences and biases so I don’t put too much weight on those criticisms. However, if there is a running critique from the readers then I know I dun goofed somewhere so back to the drawing board I go. If that happens I would need to create another draft. I hire a copy/line editor to clean up any grammatical mistakes that slipped by or correct awkward phrasing that I’ve been known for. It can be expensive, especially with a larger story, but it is worth it in the long run. Once it’s been professionally cleaned I reign in my eccentric prose to make sure I can still be direct while showing my style. And thus, the final draft will be called: the clothes.
After these five drafts, I now have a fully functional, well written narrative that’s ready to see the general public. Now I need to hire a cover designer, formatter, do pre launch marketing, round up ARC readers…
But that’s a topic for another day.
I hope this sheds some light on my process. For the writers out there, find a process that works well for you. If it’s mine, great, but what works for me might be terrible for you. I would say the idea of my process is to reign in the excitement, and lock in on refinement.