“Every fiction piece I write, from the microfiction above to my other novel, comes together in seven drafts...” Would love to hear more about your process. :-)
I start with a wildly messy first draft, written with abandon and as little judgment as possible, til I reach the conclusion. IMO, not editing much at all during the first draft is the best way to generate wild and fresh ideas!
Then I print and hand edit it for the second draft. I took a course with Chris Amick (https://residuals.substack.com) last year, who mentioned approaching your plot with a "so/but" lens and it has been fucking brilliant. Your story should go back and forth between a so and a but (like - eg a guy went to the store, BUT he forgot his wallet, SO he turned around to get it from home, BUT he encountered a lost rabbit along the way, SO he picked the rabbit up to take it home, BUT the rabbit ended up being a demon who stole his house keys from his pocket, SO...etc). I mark each so/but beat in my story, and if I find one is missing (like a string of so, so, so, or but, but, but), I jot down notes in the margins to address it.
Thennn I incorporate those edits accordingly. Once I have those in place, then I go back and reread the story exclusively through the lens of the MC and edit everything that's not in character for them (dialogue/actions/reactions). Then do the same with the secondary character. Then the third, etc. etc.
And then for the fourth through seventh it's kind of just a mayhem mix of doing those sorts of things all over again plus prose and line editing for ~beauty~. I don't know why I always feel like something's about done after seven drafts, but that's how it usually shakes out! I generally hand edit for each of these steps.
I used to retype each draft, but I don't think that was as helpful as I thought it would be; I ended up getting too committed to certain sections of prose instead of asking if it helped the story.
This was an absolute novel of a reply, but it's how I do!
“Every fiction piece I write, from the microfiction above to my other novel, comes together in seven drafts...” Would love to hear more about your process. :-)
I start with a wildly messy first draft, written with abandon and as little judgment as possible, til I reach the conclusion. IMO, not editing much at all during the first draft is the best way to generate wild and fresh ideas!
Then I print and hand edit it for the second draft. I took a course with Chris Amick (https://residuals.substack.com) last year, who mentioned approaching your plot with a "so/but" lens and it has been fucking brilliant. Your story should go back and forth between a so and a but (like - eg a guy went to the store, BUT he forgot his wallet, SO he turned around to get it from home, BUT he encountered a lost rabbit along the way, SO he picked the rabbit up to take it home, BUT the rabbit ended up being a demon who stole his house keys from his pocket, SO...etc). I mark each so/but beat in my story, and if I find one is missing (like a string of so, so, so, or but, but, but), I jot down notes in the margins to address it.
Thennn I incorporate those edits accordingly. Once I have those in place, then I go back and reread the story exclusively through the lens of the MC and edit everything that's not in character for them (dialogue/actions/reactions). Then do the same with the secondary character. Then the third, etc. etc.
And then for the fourth through seventh it's kind of just a mayhem mix of doing those sorts of things all over again plus prose and line editing for ~beauty~. I don't know why I always feel like something's about done after seven drafts, but that's how it usually shakes out! I generally hand edit for each of these steps.
I used to retype each draft, but I don't think that was as helpful as I thought it would be; I ended up getting too committed to certain sections of prose instead of asking if it helped the story.
This was an absolute novel of a reply, but it's how I do!