In one of my recent searches for estimates and guidelines for how long drafts and novels tend to be, I found that some of the advice suggested that most rough/first drafts are significantly shorter than the finished product. Which surprised me. As I think about it more, it probably shouldn’t have, because I know how quickly I end up glossing over things when just trying to get words on the page, but there’s so many other times when I end up waxing eloquent on things that really don’t need an explanation, just to keep the words flowing.
Right now, for example, I’m working through one of the Tanner and Miranda stories, doing a pass that’s more or less a second draft (yay!). The thing is, the first draft got bogged down because I kept getting distracted and writing in scenes that murdered the pace and, while fun to write, did next to nothing for the actual story. Scenes that I will need to cut out wholesale this time through, which will probably halve the word count for this particular story.
Hence my confusion. Because this is what my writing always looks like in the early stages, leading me to believe that a completed first draft (one that doesn’t end up suffering from the end of NaNo I’m-running-out-of-steam-so-I’ll-just-do-glorified-summaries thing) would probably come in at almost double the size of a more polished draft.
Clearly, the answer to my question can only be found by finishing more drafts and then actually finishing the editing. You know. For evidence.
Those of you who write, what does your drafting process look like?
F.A. Hakimian 