I’m on the last leg of the drafting process that will take me from a rough draft to a first draft. I’ve seen arguments against using the term “rough draft” as it’s still a first, but the reality is that, at least for me, the rough draft is in fact a rough draft.
To go from a rough draft to a first draft needs three passes. One to get the skeleton idea out, the second to finish the second POV (which often gets dropped in my race to finish the first step), and then one final push to fill in the rest of the areas I skipped over to get the first two passes done.
The reason I do it this way is because it’s easy to get overwhelmed at the thought of a large project like a novel. There is so much that needs to be done that looking at the big picture is overwhelming, and I’ll freeze. By breaking it down into smaller pieces, however, I can focus on that and get things done. As a result, I’ve refined my process to the point that this is what works best for me. Four-six months is about what it takes to go from the first word to beta readers now as a result, because I take it one step at a time.
One of the things that factors into my drafting process is that I’m a chronic underwriter. Each pass I add more words than I take out, because not only do I skip entire chapters or sections, I also tend to leave out things like descriptions or summarize sections to flesh out later. I do still cut unnecessary words and sentences and sometimes even entire chapters, but it’s for the overall health of the book. Everything I cut gets reworked to fit the narrative better, and it helps tighten up my storytelling and make sure every square inch of the manuscript serves a purpose. We can all tell when something was added as filler, after all, and filler is boring. It doesn’t advance the plot or make for an interesting story, and even I wind up writing it sometimes. And when I do, I’ll either cut it and rewrite whatever should go there.
After that’s done, though, the easiest part is the revisions for me. After all, everything is there, it mostly just needs cleaning up. Making the rough words sound pretty and intentional is my favorite part, as that’s when it goes from being a dull stone to a shiny diamond. Getting it out of the original rock was the hard part. Cleaning it all up is an absolute breeze. That’s not to say I don’t break it down there either. But focusing on a single aspect as I go through it makes the whole process go faster than if I tried to do it all at once.
But right now, my focus is on filling in all those spaces I skipped to finish the story. The places I’d have gotten bogged down trying to fill if I’d stopped to do a complete first draft on the first pass, instead of “settling” for a rough draft. It makes it a bit easier to do it now because the shell is there, I just have to connect the dots. Knowing what direction to go in helps so much when filling in those places I glossed over because all I need to do is figure out how to get from one point to the next.
I admire people who can do multiple books a year, and I hope to get there someday myself. I’m definitely on track for that. There is nothing wrong with going at a slower pace, of course, and it’s not like I’m following a rapid-release model. It’s my personal preference. Yours may differ and that’s just as valid. For me, though, having writing to focus on helps my mental health in a lot of ways, and that’s translated into a higher daily word count. The time off between projects, while it ultimately helps, also brings a measure of stability into the equation, and so it really is for the best for me to get it done. That doesn’t mean my method is the only valid one, however. If your method gets your work done, then it’s the right method for you, and that’s all that matters.