Story Drafts

[dr_mabeuse]

In WildSweetOne's "Integrity and Pride" thread there was a lot of talk about drafts of stories. I don't really have separate drafts of a story any more. Since I do all my editing in MSWord, I make all my revisions to the original document unless there are really major structural changes to be made. If I'm going to change big chunks of text which are worth keeping, I might save them to another file for later use (although up to now I've never used any of them.)

I might go through the original story maybe 3-5 times on average, I would guess, making revisions and editing. There are some I've gone through many more times than that, but there seems to be a point of diminishing returns after about 3-5 of these revisions. I think I do much better if I let the story age between revisions, but usually I'm too impatient.

The result is, I only have one copy of my story at any time, so it doesn't make a lot of sense to talk about different drafts.

I have no stories that I consider really finished. All of them could be improved, and if I'm going to send one of them to someone or post an old one, I inevitably end up diddling with it awhile first, which doesn't always improve it.

I don't believe there is such a thing as a 'perfect' story, or even a 'perfect' sentence. There are very good stories and even very, very good stories, but you just can't ever say that a story or any piece of art is 'perfect'.

I was just wondering how other people handle their separate 'drafts'. How many times do you revise? How do you know when to stop? When it's good enough? When you run out of talent? Or when you get sick of it?
I also wanted to know which people find easier: the original composing or the editing?

---dr.M.

 

[Guest]

drafts

dr M-

I really miss the days of "drafts". There is something soothing about marking up a draft. I have actually started saving the iterations of stories so that I can see the metamorphises.

I differentiate between copy and content editing. I usually give my stories two copy edits. Content editing is more complex. Depending on the complexity of the story, there may be as many as ten edits.

Diminishing returns.. you got that right. But, since I write for me, I don't think about it much. One thing that helps me more than anything is having someone else read my work for content and telling me what worked and what was missing.

Which is easier? Copy editing is the easiest. Getting the original thoughts down is next. Fleshing out and critical details are always the most painful for me. I think it is because I am lazy. By the time I am writing that portion, I have "lived" the story so many times that I am annoyed that I have to write it down.

Good questions, dr_m.

b

 

[oggbashan]

I don't believe there is such a thing as a 'perfect' story, or even a 'perfect' sentence. There are very good stories and even very, very good stories, but you just can't ever say that a story or any piece of art is 'perfect'.

I was just wondering how other people handle their separate 'drafts'. How many times do you revise? How do you know when to stop? When it's good enough? When you run out of talent? Or when you get sick of it?
I also wanted to know which people find easier: the original composing or the editing?

---dr.M.

I have to use version control to keep track of my drafts. Before posting I usually reach version 007 or 8 of the final completed story. I keep all the drafts as files because sometimes version 003 might have a better part than the later versions or a late sub-plot might have outgrown its usefulness. Sometimes I have changed the viewpoint from 3rd person to 1st person and then decided that 3rd person worked better.

My stories are never good enough. If I could I would rewrite them all several times.

When writing I give an alpha designator to each file so that "HannahA" is the first, "HannahB" is the second. Once I have reached the full length story I change to version 001.

I print hard copies when I have time. I find it easier to mark up printed text with queries and find errors. I suppose that is because of my previous work on technical texts when I had to deal with printer's proofs.

A hard copy of an uncompleted story I can put aside for weeks and then re-read. At that point I might scrap the story or totally recast it. I never actually "scrap" anything. There will be a file and back-ups. One of my earliest stories is still there and is a reminder of how much worse I was when I started.

For every story I have posted I have about six drafts. Then there are the incomplete stories which outnumber those posted by 2 to 1. Then there are the outlines of stories yet to be written which are sequels, prequels or parallel to the posted stories.

I still use my ancient DOS based wordprocessor. I can fit at least 10 versions of my longest stories on one floppy so space isn't a problem.

I had to buy a shredder for the printed copies.

Og

 

[flawed_ethics]

I'm just an ametuer. Hell, I can't even spell correctly without a spell checker. But, when it comes to writing papers or stories, I typically save over the current version until I feel a significant amount of progress has been made, or if I had changed a significant part already written that I felt keeping the original draft would serve as an important reference.

My latest work (still pending) went from clovin.rtf to clovin3.rtf before I had it finished, after which I went to a personal alphabetic system for proofreading, paragraph restructuring, whatnot.

It makes for an interesting mess on my hard-drive. One of those personal messes where only I can safely sift through the chaos I've created.

 

[openthighs_sarah]

I like to think that if God had wanted my story to be different (or "correct"), She would have had me write it that way in the first place. So I tend to just have one draft.

While I realize that isn't "helpful", in the strictest sense of the word, it is still, nevertheless, entirely true, except for the bit about God.

Yours in mild but friendly inebriation,
Sarah

 

[KillerMuffin]

I separate them by folders.

In progress, Waiting, In revision, In submission, Published, and Completed. Completed are finished stories that haven't been published anywhere yet.

I file short stories by their name. Novels have their own folders since each chapter is a separate file. They're shuffled folder to folder as appropriate. I don't keep the previous draft.

I use Access 2000 to track submissions. I only print out work that is to be submitted via the mail. Everything else is on hard drive and disk. Ink is too expensive to waste. I use the various gimmicks to edit, but usually the wait takes care of it for me. I wait months to edit anything unless there is a deadline associated with it, then I wait as long as possible to give me a week editing deadline.

My bookkeeping for my stories is impeccable. My bookkeeping for my checkbook is, well, deplorable.

 

[Uther_Pendragon]

In terms of saving drafts, I fall between two extremes that
have been previously posted. I'm a compulsive fiddler. I
seldom write more on a story without going back and changing something, usually
something utterly minor, in the previous part. I don't
(except for my word-processor's own compulsive savings of
the last version of "story" as "story.bak") save those.
When I think I'm doing a major rewrite, I try to save the
previous version. When I have posted something, I often
have to go back and delete previous versions. (Otherwise,
I won't know what is the last. One real pain is finding
you have done minor changes on two versions of a story,
and you don't have any version with *all* of the changes.)
:
Anyway, I like a comment of Kipling's which I can't
remmeber precisely. But he said something like:
"Anyone can write, what makes an author is rewriting."

 

[TheEarl]

Everything just stays within the one file usually. Sometimes if I've written a scene which I like, but don't need at that time, I'll save it in another file, but I rarely come back to them anyway.

There is editing and there is tinkering. I'm in favour of the former, but the latter is pretty pointless. Tinkering involves all the same work as editing, but the story isn't getting any better or is getting worse.

The Earl

 

[oggbashan]

My bookkeeping for my stories is impeccable. My bookkeeping for my checkbook is, well, deplorable.

A kindred soul Stories are important. Money? I have it or I don't.

Og

 

[reohoko]

I was just wondering how other people handle their separate 'drafts'. How many times do you revise? How do you know when to stop? When it's good enough? When you run out of talent? Or when you get sick of it?
I also wanted to know which people find easier: the original composing or the editing?

---dr.M.

hehehe, I keep a ton of CDs, when I have enough my folders to make a CD I just make a CD.

It often leaves me with duplicates and such. Like I will now have about 5th copy of the two stories I have here.

But, if I need a story that I know was complete, I have put it on my website too. Then I can find it without hassle.

THat was the real reason I made a site. I couldn't usually find my more recent drafts on all the CDs. And I really liked the pretty pictures .

Need coffeee....... stupid slow coffee pot

 

[SlaveMasterUK]

I usually have a plot-draft for all of my stories. Since they're all around the novella or novel length I can't ever hope to keep all of the plot in my head, particularly when I have a really great new idea of where to progress a certain point.

Particularly in my sci-fi novel where the story is told from the POV of 3 different characters, who cross each others paths throughout, it is really helpful to have a full chapterised plot draft so that I know who is doing what, when, and I can avoid any nasty "that guy is in two places at the same time" issues.

This part of the process is usually the easiest, because it's where I get to be creative with the story without worrying about details of storytelling. It's sometimes very tough, but enjoyable nonetheless so I find I can get on with it. The plot-draft is always in a different file called storyname-plotdraft-vnnn

When I edit in the main story I have a file called storyname-vnnn and the number is incremented every time I re-open the story. So, I might open v003 on Tuesday, edit it for a few mins and save as v004, then keep updating that version until I leave the screen. Then the next day I'll open v004, save as v005 and update that copy etc. I do this more from a data integrity point of view - how many people here have had only one copy of their prised story, only to be faced with an ERROR READING FILE message? If I know that I have done two hours work since I saved the last file, I can at least go back to it.

Just to give you an idea, Rhiana was about 36,000 words and reached version number 042 in the few months I worked on it.

The hardest part of writing is getting the words on the page. I'm currently struggling with one scene in which I know exactly what I want to happen, I can see it all in my mind, but I can't find the words to get it down on paper. But I've learnt to just get on with it, write down any old crap - then tidy it in the edit later. I do tend to re-read my stories countless times before I'm happy, so I don't worry so much if something doesn't make sense first time round.

Ax

 

[Le Jacquelope]

REAL authors use

MS Visual Source Safe - to manage their revisions.

Hyperreal geeky authors use CVS.

(Just kidding )

 

[wildsweetone]

This thread has given me food for thought, thanks dr. m.

Usually when I write a story, I write it as a word document, then save it to a folder. If/when I rework or add to the story, I save over the top of the existing file.

I have an unrealiable computer, so have learnt to save my most important pieces onto a floppy. Much of my writing I print out. I store it in a cardboard filing box which I look through once in a blue moon.

I have now decided that I will keep my original story in one folder and the finished product in another. I was recently asked to show the difference between the two and I had to wrack my braincells to recall what I'd done.

I haven't gotten completely sick to death of one of my own stories yet. Though I did come pretty close when I was writing for the radio competition.

I find the writing to be the easiest part. The words flow from my fingers before I've consciously thought of them.

Editing for myself is difficult. Worse than that though, is leaving my work long enough to become 'separated' from it to edit with a clear mind.

 

[pop_54]

Hmmmmmmmm

Sorry folks another ignorant non-author, it gets written in MS Word 2000 in a single draft, sometimes overwritten and saved in places, then a quick spell check and submit it.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I heard some people on the radio mourning the advent of the word-processor because it means that earlier drafts will no longer available. Scholars and critics trace the evolution of a writer's work and thought through the history of drafts and revisions, and with computers these won't be available any more.

But it's also possible that computers will put an end to reading for pleasure altogether, so it's a pretty moot point.


---dr.M.

 

[MathGirl]

Shudder

But it's also possible that computers will put an end to reading for pleasure altogether, so it's a pretty moot point.

Dear DrM,
That's a scary thought. It might also put an end to people writing so others can read for pleasure. Wouldn't that be a pisser?
MG