Posted by Wonder1 on July 09, 2007 at 13:19:08:
In Reply to: Fiction: first through final draft and their purpose. posted by Amber Pickle on July 05, 2007 at 08:03:59:
: Can anyone explain the purpose of each draft, from the rough through the final? I feel that understanding the purpose of each will help the writer focus, and critiques can be more productive.
: Thank you in advance for your help.
I expect this is a matter of personal preference, but I'll put in my $.02. In my case, referring to the writing of a novel, I would pretty much write the entire first draft without too much revision. That's because of the old saying "you don't know what you've got until you finish." Therefore, the first revision is to go back and clean up the story elements, take care of all the wrong turns the story took in first draft. Then, in the next draft, I would work on language, try to make sure every sentence is working, is telling what needs to be told with efficiency and grace. This is the time to begin to cut out some of the fat. Fat is the single biggest problem we writers have, overwriting of scenes and putting in too many "darlings" Descriptions we just love but add nothing to the story. Then, in the next draft, I might go to work on characters: try to sharpen them up, make each of them come to life, but make sure the supporting cast characters aren't attracting too much attention. The next draft could be to liven up the descriptions. I'd try to imagine what each scene looks like, feels like, smells like, sounds like. Look at pictures or, if possible, actually go to the location and see what it looks like.
By this point, I may have enough distance from the novel to start to see its flaws. That might require a major rewrite and some of the above would therefore have to be done all over again.
Hope that helps. It's a good question and I'd be curious to hear that others would have to say. I know some people revise constantly, redoing each scene over and over until they get it right. Maybe it depends on your personality. What I do know is that a novel takes a lot of revision.