It's a day with the possibility of answering asks! How do you approach a second draft? What are the parameters you're looking to fill this time? How much is editing and how much is rewriting?
Hi Sleepy!
Second drafts for me are usually about structure. I tend to throw things at the wall until I'm satisfied the first time around lol so moving some things around, introducing new scenes to support the plot points I like, eliminating things that I might have liked but just don't work. Stuff like that. But even with that, I usually end up rewriting more than editing in the second draft. If I'm introducing new scenes and eliminating some others I prefer to rewrite the draft as I go so that it still looks cohesive overall. The actual editing I tend to save for more final drafts lol
It's a day with the possibility of answering asks! How do you approach a second draft? What are the parameters you're looking to fill this time? How much is editing and how much is rewriting?
Hi Sleepy!!! Thanks for the ask!
Unfortunately, I've literally never made it to the second draft of a long-term project.
When I was writing ATQH (all out of order) I would occasionally re-write scenes from memory (open a new doc and just rewrite based on what I remembered of the plot of the scene). This would usually let me keep the parts I liked and replace the parts I didn't like.
When it comes to my D&D OC Vignettes (my only recent writing for the past 2-ish years), I usually just go back and edit the parts I don't like / don't fully vibe with.
If there's big chunks I don't like, or I'm stuck halfway through, then I'll do some rewriting to figure out the areas where I'm stuck and hopefully be able to move forwards.
But all of this only goes for very short pieces (less than 10k), and never for anything that I'm planning on doing anything serious with.
This might sound like a weird ask, but I don't know how to write the second(or more) draft. I've heard some advice about rewriting and not editing, but every time I try to write the second draft, I just end up copying the first one, with very few differences.
So my question is, what is your way of writing the second draft and if you have any advice on that? I know some things that work for some don't work for others, but I just can't seem to find the right way.
Oh, second drafts. Only the most difficult writing step after drafting, followed by the most difficult step of writing the third draft.
The good news is that almost no one pulls together their story on the second draft. If your first draft is putting down the bones of the story, the second is figuring out where to lay the connective tissue. Maybe you've got too many bones, maybe you don't have enough. Maybe some of your bones are too short, or too misshapen to work. The second draft is getting that story skeleton together, knowing full well you're gonna need to fix some of those bones first.
Get yourself a plan to put that skeleton together - make an outline. I swear I'm not the sworn enemy of pantsers that i sometimes seem to be (it's professional jealousy, I swear), but if you don't have an outline, now is the time to get one. If you do, go back and revise that first. You'll want to know what you want the story to become from the pile of bones you're working from.
Not enough bones - identify what you're missing. If you're like me, sometimes while drafting you write 'figure this shit out later' and then forget to do so. Thanks for nothing, Past Me. But chances are your story needs some added scenes, more character development, etc. Identifying those missing pieces and fleshing out your outline can help you tackle a second draft.
Too many bones - figure out what needs to be cut. Not every scene is going to be worth keeping no matter how attached to them you are. If you're on the fence about a scene, consider if it serves to move the plot forward, develops the characters, or establishes important worldbuilding. If the scene meanders plotlessly, repeats character beats instead of expanding on them, or seems to suck the oxygen out of the story, you may have to rethink or remove them.
These bones don't fit - figure out what scenes are lacking. Another thing I tend to do in first drafts is sell my scenes short. I just don't think of the best outcome, the most dramatic climax, or a great setting when I'm trying to figure out what happens. In going through your novel, think about each scene carefully. Should this argument take place in a deserted library, or would it be more emotional and dramatic on a crowded train? If the villain's plot seems small, how can you make him a greater threat?
Uuuh bro that's not a human bone - revising scenes that went off the rails. If you're gearing up for NaNoWriMo yet again, you might know the feeling of writing pages of bullshit to make that wordcount. It could be good bullshit! It could be really fun! But if it sticks out like a sore thumb in the story, it may be best to set aside to figure out what to make out of it later.
You're not going to get everything right in the second draft either, so don't over-stress in trying to get your story whipped into shape. But you will be better off after giving those bones a little polish and assembling them into what could conceivably pass for a decent skeleton, one that you won't mind sharing with others to see what other work it might need. Good luck!
The joy of editing can be discovered in finding new and better ways to say things you thought you had already said.
I always thought that I hated editing. That I hated second drafts. It turns out that I always moved from project to project so fast that I never really had the chance to sit down and work on a second draft. Well, I am now entrenched deeper in a second draft project than I have ever been before, and I have learned that, to my surprise . . . I actually really enjoy the editing phase! I am enjoying writing my second draft!
My disdain from editing as a younger writer always stemmed from pride and perfectionism. I didn’t like the idea of second drafts because I wanted to put the time and thought and care and creativity into saying it the right way from the very beginning. It turns out that even with such agony, a rough draft is never anything more than a rough draft.
In the years since, my opinions on “shitty first drafts” have reversed. My battles with writer’s block have convinced me that the only way to finish most drafts is to just put SOMETHING down until you reach the end, no matter how bad it is, and then suck it up and edit later. And let me tell you . . . I have had more fun editing my first draft and creating my second draft than I ever expected. And it’s because of this writing tip I am sharing today.
All that pride and perfectionism I used to agonize over in the rough draft, I am now discovering to greater effect in the second. I left almost an entire year between completing my shitty first draft and editing my second, and that distance allowed me to get my head out of the clouds and actually examine the writing critically. The result is that I have found so much unexpected joy in the process of reading old writing and then being struck with the thought, “You know what? A year ago, I wrote this because this is how I thought this scene was supposed to go, but now I see that it would be so much better if it went like THIS!” I have managed to find joy even in re-writing entire chapters because of the joy that I have found in discovering the better version of something you already wrote. I highly recommend it.
hey. hi. writblr. i have a question and is is distressing me severely so i must know:
do yall not rewrite the entire book for the 2nd draft??? is that just me???
to clarify: i mean i set up a new doc, have the 1st draft open for reference, and completely redo the book. Some scenes just have a few little word changes, but usually like 70% of it is reworded or replotted. And regardless of how much i change, i physically write a new copy of all of it.
Is that not typical??? what do you do instead if not??? i have seen Things suggesting my way is not the common way. and like. how??? why??? WHY??? what do you do instead?? please tell me. PLEASE
hey writers, whats your take on starting a second draft when the first draft is incomplete?
I’m probably going to keep going on my first draft until I’ve got enough of the bones of my major scenes and plot points to hold the story together but then I’m thinking I’ll probably start my rewrite before trying to tie those all together and fix things.
I tend to write my scenes out of order as well, so big moments will have to change in the next draft too to incorporate things that I didn’t know when I first wrote them
So out of curiosity - do you like to have a complete and tidy first draft before starting your second, or do you just write the first draft until you’ve got enough of the most important parts before starting over on your second draft?
Firstly, I'd like to say your stories sound amazing and I wish you all the best with them! Secondly, you might've answered this (or it might be difficult to answer) but how do you go about just starting a second draft? I've got a few first drafts scattered around and I'd like to edit them but... there's just so much and I have no idea where to start and then I just end up not doing it because it just seems like an insurmountable task. Help, please?
this went into my drafts with the idea that i would work on it next weekend, but,,, it has since been several months’ worth of weekends, and i’m only just getting to it 😅
Starting Second Drafts
For me, the second draft is less about editing what I’ve written, and more about refining what happens. You’ll probably find your own way of working as you redraft more of your stories, but here’s six key points that have really helped me:
1) PRINT IT OUT & CHANGE IT UP
(I’m assuming here you’ve typed your first draft; if you wrote it longhand, ignorethese next two paragraphs)
Most of writing is just playing mind games with yourself, and there’s nobetter way to do this than change the font and/or text colour from one draft to the next. It gives your writing a new look and tricks your brain into paying attention again, which helps when you’re reading through the first draft and deciding what’s going to happen to it.
Printing it out is a large part of this – having your story in a different format lets you look at it from a different angle, both literally and figuratively. It alsomeans you can make notes and cross out chunks directly on paper, which is avery satisfying process (and as writers, we need to take our satisfaction wherewe can!).
2) SCRIBBLE ALL OVER IT
I think that the reason the second draft seems so daunting it because there’s this pressure to Make It All Perfect, and attacking your first draft with coloured pens and post-it notes alleviates that somewhat. It doesn’t have to be neat; it just hasto make sense to you.
Don’t try to filter your ideas, either – if you think of something that could change, or that you want to add, write it down, even if it conflicts with what you’vealready got. Keeping all your options open will help when you get to later draftsand revisions, and want to look back see how else scenes or plots could playout.
3) FOCUS ON THE BIGGER PICTURE
Following on from the last point, it’s also important to remember that the second draft isn’t about making your prose nice and clean, or about finalising those littledetails like what houseplants your characters keep or what the café they eat atis called. The second draft is still very much Bigger Picture territory, i.e.,getting plot events in the right order or weaving through character growth and subplots.
Here’s a picture of what When Dealing with Wolves’ first draft looked like when Iwas working on it:
[ID: a printed-out manuscript, headed with the titles “Second Draft” and “Chapter One”. I’ve messily written all over the text in red pen, circling large chunks and indicating changes with arrows. /End ID]
And here’s one of draft two/three, for comparison in the editing style:
[ID: a second printed out page, this time with more detailed notes correcting grammar and rewriting sentences. Lots of words and lines are crossed out in thick black pen. /End ID]
In the former, the focus is on moving around scenes or details so that they made more sense; in the latter, I was paying more attention to sentence form and prose, as well as restructuring.
4) REFINE YOUR NOTES
Once you’ve got this lovely scrawled-on mess, you’ll probably want to make some decisions re: what’s going to happen in draft two. Take your scribbled notes from the first draft and decide what you think will work best, thinking about:
Plot events
Character growth
Worldbuilding changes
Subplots
(How detailed these notes are depends on your writing planning style. Whether you do a few bullet points as a vague outline or plan each plot point meticulously is entirely up to you).
5) START FROM SCRATCH
Okay, not quite from scratch. You’ve got all those notes, and you still have your first draft to refer to as well. What “start from scratch” means in this context is “don’t just work directly onto the first draft document”.
What you want with your second draft is freedom to let the story grow, and you can’t get that if you edit straight into the confines of your first draft. Re-typingscenes instead of copy and pasting also makes you think about them,getting your brain to approach any problems in new ways.
And, last but not least—
6) GIVE YOURSELF SPACE TO EXPLORE
I’ve seen this said about first drafts countless times, but it goes for second drafts, too! If you want to write several different versions of scene, do it. Want tochange a character’s name for the sixth time? Go for it. I don’t consider theplot, or even the details, of a WIP fixed until I’m into the final revisions ofthe last draft.
The only thing to remember is always, always keep track of your changes, be that via an Excel spreadsheet, notes in a separate word document, or novel journal entries. That way, if you decide later that an old idea actually works better, you can go back and retrieve it with minimal fuss.
Once you finish your first draft, the story still isn’t completed. You still have to go through and edit it and write several drafts before it’s ready to send to publishers, and even then you’ll have to go through several rounds of editing before it’s ready to be published.
To start, let’s discuss the difference between editing and drafts, because to be honest, I didn’t know until I did my research.
Editing is more just making smaller changes (such as grammar, switching around sentences, word choice, etc).
Drafts are more for enhancing your writing and making it a lot more detailed than the first draft. You’re also making sure all of the details are there and you’re not missing any vital information. It’s like serious rewrites.
When reading through your first draft, it’s very important that you’re just making notes of what you’re going to include in the story and not editing as you go. The notes should include what you’re going to keep, change, or delete and why you decided to make that choice, big twists you want to make, how to make the *word, phrase, paragraph, scene, chapter* better if you’re going to change it, rearranging entire paragraphs, etc. Make sure everything is kept on track for a smooth draft!
You should also take note of the bigger things you want to change (like adding in a plot twist or taking it out, changing character personalities, deaths, etc.)
While you’re revising, you should start with the big things first. If there was a problem that you got rid of, think of what you can fill that missing space with instead. For the reverse, consider what the prolem is and see how quickly you can make the solution occur and what the solution even should be.
While you’re writing the second, third and so forth drafts, you might realize that you either focused too little or too much on your subplots. They’re really important to have so that you’re not solely focusing on one thing, that makes for a very boring story, but you also don’t want too many because then things get really crazy and it’s hard to keep track of what’s going on. As you’re working through your drafts, you can add them in or remove them if they’re irrelevant, but make sure you have at least two subplots. You want subplots for character development, but don’t have subplots for the sake of subplots.
During the multi draft writing process, you may notice you’ll have to have to change the plot or even rearrange some scenes. Don’t be worried if the story as a whole changes entirely. That’s just part of the revisions process. As long as you’re happy with the outcome and it makes sense, then it’s good.
It’s going to take time to do, but you’ll end up with something you’re proud of and want to get published, so don’t give up on it! Once you’re at that point, it’ll all be worth it. Remember that the second draft may not be complete either, so just be prepared for multiple rounds of changes.
