![]() Here at The Write Practice, we believe in community-driven feedback and critiques. Getting feedback from other writers shines light on how our readers will receive what we are writing. We tend to see what we mean to say, but we do not always see what our readers will be thinking when they read our works. As writers we are often blinded by our own thoughts. Part of the editing process is the need for another pair of eyes to read your work. You may even find you need to rewrite parts of your book entirely! The Genius of Feedback It can be as simple as adding missing scenes, cutting unnecessary ones, or rewriting scenes that are not moving the story forward the way you intended. You will consider the structure of your book and discover loopholes that need to be fixed. To do this, you will read your book from start to finish and look at your book as a whole. But the core of your story is already on the page.Īs you edit your second draft, you will take that story and make it better. Sure, it might be messy, and you might change some of those major elements along the way when writing the second draft. You have created your hero’s journey, your main characters, and the hard choices your protagonist needs to face. You’ve decided on the conflict and resolution. ![]() You probably already have the main three-act structure written. And editing the second draft is different from writing the first draft because you already know where you are going with the story and how the story ends. A writer “working on a second draft” is working on a first round of edits, generally focused on structural concerns like major plot points and the flow of ideas.Ī completed second draft may be a finished, publishable manuscript, but it will usually require further revision.Įditing is complex. ![]() The second draft of a piece of writing is the result of one round of editing. It's arguably even harder than writing the rough sketch of your book, which is what you created in your first draft.īut that doesn't mean you can't succeed. Regardless of how your first version of your story turned out, your second draft is the unskippable next step. Or maybe you didn't hit your goal word count, but you did reach the end of the story (or, for a nonfiction book, the end of the content you want to include). You might have met your word count goal, or written way more than you expected to. Your first draft is complete when you are ready to move on to your second draft, the next phase of writing your book. But what happens next? Do you just begin a new project, or start over? It's exciting to go from a blank page to typing those hard-earned words: THE END. There’s no way to skip this essential step! From Mess to Masterpiece Without a first draft, there’s nothing to edit. It is the preliminary stage in the writing process. Writing a first draft provides you as the writer with a chance to meld your thoughts together and to further develop your ideas. Completing your entire manuscript is an essential step to achieve before you begin the editing process. It is still the first draft because you are reworking a story that you have not finished. What if you’re starting from the first page and rewriting a story that is already over halfway finished? Until that amazing, miraculous, hard-earned moment where you type the words “The End,” you have not completed your manuscript. If you have written most of your story, but never finished it, and you decide to start over, is that a first draft? To put it simply, the first draft is a pile of words thrown together. In most cases, a first draft requires further work to be publication-ready. The first draft is a completed manuscript that has NOT been edited in other words, a rough initial draft of your piece of writing. It will help you understand what to focus on when you're writing-and have fun while you do it! What Does “First Draft” Mean? Knowing the differences between first drafts, second drafts, and editing your book will elevate your ability to tackle the writing and editing process. What does “first draft” mean-or “second draft,” for that matter? Or you may have written the entire manuscript, but then wish to scrap it and start fresh.Īnd when considering this, you question: “Am I writing a first draft? Am I editing my novel?” ![]() When writing multiple drafts of a book, you may be halfway through your rough draft and decide to start over. Have you ever wondered which draft you are working on? Do you wonder what the difference is between your first draft, your second draft, and editing your book? Let's break down the first draft definition and the differences between drafts.
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