This craft analysis will provide an overview of drafting, the period of development that begins with the first draft and concludes with the final draft. Drafting is a fundamental component of writing, and accounts for over ninety percent of the writing process.
If you want to be a writer, you must accept the responsibility of revision. Drafting is revision, the act of re-imagining or reconsidering the important aspects of your story. Drafting begins with the first draft.
A Workable First Draft
I have already discussed in some detail the nature of the first draft. In many ways, it is nothing more than the starting line of the marathon that is writing something. Having a workable first draft is important if you want to continue drafting and eventually arrive at the destination of a final draft.
A workable draft is nothing more than a rough first draft that generates enough interest to be worthy of development. A workable draft may be no more than a few paragraphs, or it may number dozens or even hundreds of pages. The important thing is that it exists, and that you are willing to develop it.
You may have to write a few rough drafts in order to arrive at a workable first draft. I typically write at least two rough drafts for every workable draft I develop. Some writers will need to write more, others fewer. It will depend upon on how critical you are and how good you are at detecting working elements.
A working element may be any number of things: an interesting character or an interesting plot device. Whatever it is, it must provide enough thrust to drive you to take that next most important step – the second draft.
The Second Draft
Before returning to the first draft it is advisable to wait at least a few weeks. I call this waiting period between revisiting a draft distance. You must distance yourself from the first draft because the next step of drafting will require you to tear it apart.
As you develop the first draft into the second draft, you will try to bring out working elements. Whatever you found working in the first draft must be developed in the second draft. You may find yourself removing large snippets of prose. You may remove entire sections, or reverse the order of sections. In the second draft, you must make significant changes. You may change main characters, swap character genders, alter character ages, and even re-invent the story completely. When you are done, the second draft should barely resemble the first draft.
The Middle Drafts
You can’t stop after the second draft. You will likely create a third draft and a fourth and even a fifth. With each of these early drafts, you will make significant changes. Within just a few drafts, the story may no longer resemble the first draft.
Somewhere around the seventh or eighth draft you begin to ask yourself if the story will ever be done. Only you can make the decision to stop drafting and call your developing story a final draft.
Some writers will only create five drafts in order to arrive at a final draft, and others have to write twenty or thirty drafts. Each time you read the story, you will come up with new ideas, new character traits, new plot devices, new descriptions. In theory, the process of drafting is without an end. In reality, you will eventually grow weary of revising or you will run into a deadline. At that point, you must stop drafting, and choose a draft to carry the label of final draft.
The Final Draft
The final draft is synonymous with your story. It will be version of your story that your readers will associate with you. The umpteen drafts created before the story will exist only in your memory on your computer hard drive. Your final draft, the finish line of the marathon that is drafting, will define your story for posterity. Choose wisely.