Is it easier to write my book in one take or do several drafts?

You’ve finally sat down at your computer and are ready to write the big novel. As you stare at the blinking cursor trying to figure out where to start a question pops into your head. Should I try to write this book in one take or push through with an initial draft?

Writing a book is a process. There is preparation, possibly outlining some chapters, sometimes outlining the plot, writing bios on characters, determining the setting, research on various topics, and so much more. Even after the last period is typed and you celebrate there is still a lot of work ahead. There are dozens of books on the market on “how to write a book” and each one is a little or vastly different than the last. While some claim to be the best way or the right way the reality is there is no one clearcut method for all authors to create their book.

Admittedly, I got caught up in thinking that I had to follow one of these methods and I became so frustrated I abandoned writing for quite a while. The reality is you need to figure out what works for you. The problem is you won’t be able to figure that out until you have written for a little while AND you experiment with different ideas. I realized I had to set aside my preconceived notions of writing for fresher ideas, and I even took a course on writing fiction that pushed me to finally finish my first book.

YouTube also filled with many “foolproof” and “easy” methods to publish your first book although some of those methods are questionable in my opinion. The key is to take ideas from varying sources and create your own method. Many things I’ve seen that some authors are doing seem to be a large waste of time and effort in the overall process, but if it works for them I cannot judge. Not every step that someone else uses will work for you although there are methods that I am constantly discovering that I try or morph into something else.

This post borders on one I wrote on how to start writing abook (I may do another variation of this as well) as I feel the work you do before you sit down and stare at that blinking cursor may help answer the initial question. Many people find writing from start to finish (with plenty of editing and rewrites along the way) is easiest while many others including big name authors write in drafts.

Authors like Stephen King and J.K. Rowling write in drafts. The book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, had 15 drafts before the final product. Rowling also changed a lot of details from the first to final draft as have many other notable authors. Can you imagine Sherlock Holmes being named Sherrinford Hope? Good thing for drafts.

Why would I want to write several drafts of my book?

Writing several drafts is the “old school” method and is generally more effort than writing one draft that is edited throughout the writing process. When writing drafts, you start at the beginning and write to the end. No editing along the way. It’s writing as fast as your fingers will allow all while using your notes and other prework as a guide, or not. With this method you can reach the end of the story much quicker than trying to add and subtract along the way. You’ll still have those “aha” moments (I call them organic moments) where fresh ideas that were not planned manifest out of nowhere.

When I began to write and used a typewriter, I went through three drafts of a book before showing it to an editor. - Judy Blume

The key is to reach the end and have an idea of the whole scope of the story in a short amount of time. From that point you would have an idea of things to work on through that initial writing process. A second draft will not necessarily be done from beginning to end and may just be adding a character or a chapter or other small rewrites, but it's usually a lot more. Sometimes a second draft may be a whole new rewrite, but it doesn’t take as much time as it did to write the first draft. To some this may seem like a waste of time, but getting through the story in a first draft gets right to the point and as you continue to write and rewrite the story will take shape with a sharper chisel than using a one-time draft and going through a thorough editing process. Many times, an author is proud of their creation so much that they don’t want to change a lot due to all the hard work. While this is noble it’s not practical and knowing that you’re just writing a draft will help one avoid not wanting to change or evolve their ideas beyond that lengthy one-time draft.

I would advise any beginning writer to write the first drafts as if no one else will ever read them - without a thought about publication - and only in the last draft to consider how the work will look from the outside. - Anne Tyler

The multi-draft method may seem to take longer but this is part of writing a book. I’ve met a few authors that state they write from beginning to end and only do a few edits after that. If you want to self-publish and crank out books that many readers will find full of confusing content and errors then go for it. As a writer you lose objectivity to your own work as you go and when you try to edit as you go you lose even more objectivity due to constantly reading what you write (I’ll write more on editing in a future post). Whether we want to realize it or not we are blind to our own mistakes with writing. With a draft method once you are done and reread you’ll have a bit more objectivity since you wrote it and moved on. It’s the same as if you take a few weeks away from reading your work and suddenly find a lot of mistakes in places that you know you have read already.

The bottom line is that I like my first drafts to be blind, unconscious, messy efforts; that's what gets me the best material. - Jennifer Egan

Doing drafts also allows you to make larger changes to your work. In my first novel I wrote it from beginning to end over eight years while editing along the way. I would write a chapter or so and then the next time I sat down I would reread and edit what I wrote previously. I thought this was smart until I began editing and realized it was a big mess. I spent so much time editing along the way and I still had a ton of work to do. Being overconfident in my work I began to pitch query letters but eventually got the cold reality back in several comments. I realized I just had a draft and went through and rewrote the book in just a couple of months as a second draft after spending years editing on the fly. While the overall story was the same the difference in the first and second draft was quite noticeable.

Once I've got the first draft down on paper then I do five or six more drafts, the last two of which will be polishing drafts. The ones in between will flesh out the characters and maybe I'll check my research. - Collen McCullough

I still like to edit a bit as I go although more with notes than actual changes, but I realized my mistakes after that first novel and have tried different approaches since. It seems the more work that is done before you begin to write the draft the better the outcome no matter which approach you use. That doesn’t mean you have to plan every chapter (I don’t recommend that for organic moments to help your story flourish) but putting work into dialogue and major plot points can eliminate pacing and plot issues within a first draft.

Books aren't written - they're rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hasn't quite done it. - Michael Crichton

Remember, writing a book isn’t just going from chapter one to an epilogue. No matter how great of a writer you are, there will always be something that needs attention even if you’ve edited along the way. We’re all in a rush to get that book done but taking the time to do it right is more important than just getting the last sentence done. By taking the draft route, you’ll be able to subdue that feeling of rushing the draft to the printers and finding mistakes in your author’s copy. If you eventually get a literary agent to accept your book there is a good chance they will want several edits or even an updated draft completed. If you’ve become draft savvy this will be an easy challenge.

One exercise that helped me was when I wrote a short story on the fly for Autumn Tales III: The Return. I submitted a short story the year before that I wrote in an edit-on-the-go method and I still finished it in a few days although there were mistakes found afterward. The following year I was writing a new short story from scratch and I practiced just writing drafts. I still finished it in less than a week and it changed how I viewed my writing process. Try drafting with a short story, novelette, or even a novella before tackling a full length novel.