I'm so curious about other folk's drafting systems as well!
Once I get past the first two drafts, which are focused heavily on just getting words on the page, I often have passes where I'm not touching every scene and am focusing on, say, improving the group dynamics or beefing up a haunting subplot, and once I work through all of the relevant changes, I consider that draft done.
As I get closer to the finish line and want to ensure every scene sees improvements (and the manuscript is working as a whole), I consider a full chapter-one-to-the-end sweep as a single draft. Every once in a while, if I'm feeling really burnt out, I'll stop wherever I'm at and give myself the clean-slate feeling of a new draft.
Oh, this is really interesting! Thanks so much for sharing! I always intend to do a draft focused on just one thing, but I've never managed it. Maybe I get distracted by the other things that are wrong 😄.
Oh my, yes, I 100% understand the near-constant distraction of finding everything that's wrong.
I feel like I'm forever trying to trick my brain into not giving up entirely, and if I tell myself, "Okay, we're just fixing the haunting subplot! Easy peasy!" my brain doesn't need to know that this "one little thing" is actually a 42-page checklist until it's too late and we're halfway done. 😂
Thank you! Lately I've been naming drafts with the current season (Summer 2026, for example) rather than using numbers. Somehow it frees me up in a way an ever-increasing draft number would not. For me, the most important value here is version control--using a system that will allow me to recover something from a previous draft should the need arise.
I'm so curious about other folk's drafting systems as well!
Once I get past the first two drafts, which are focused heavily on just getting words on the page, I often have passes where I'm not touching every scene and am focusing on, say, improving the group dynamics or beefing up a haunting subplot, and once I work through all of the relevant changes, I consider that draft done.
As I get closer to the finish line and want to ensure every scene sees improvements (and the manuscript is working as a whole), I consider a full chapter-one-to-the-end sweep as a single draft. Every once in a while, if I'm feeling really burnt out, I'll stop wherever I'm at and give myself the clean-slate feeling of a new draft.
Oh, this is really interesting! Thanks so much for sharing! I always intend to do a draft focused on just one thing, but I've never managed it. Maybe I get distracted by the other things that are wrong 😄.
Oh my, yes, I 100% understand the near-constant distraction of finding everything that's wrong.
I feel like I'm forever trying to trick my brain into not giving up entirely, and if I tell myself, "Okay, we're just fixing the haunting subplot! Easy peasy!" my brain doesn't need to know that this "one little thing" is actually a 42-page checklist until it's too late and we're halfway done. 😂
Thank you! Lately I've been naming drafts with the current season (Summer 2026, for example) rather than using numbers. Somehow it frees me up in a way an ever-increasing draft number would not. For me, the most important value here is version control--using a system that will allow me to recover something from a previous draft should the need arise.
Nice! Yes, sometimes numbering does feel a little oppressive. I like the season idea!