ot: who the novel writers here?
Mistara
Posts: 38,675
in The Commons
published or self-published no snobs lol
on average, how many drafts before you start to recognize a story?
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5-6 for me
(Although, what do you mean be recognize?)
I usually write an outline and a draft and then I polish the draft. I write my drafts pretty slowly and carefully, though -- some people do 5-6 drafts in the time it takes me to do an outline plus one.
I do a full chapter-by-chapter outline front-to-back and then start a draft. (I have to know where I'm going to end up before I start writing.) As I go along, I re-write/massage the previous chapter as a run-up to working on the current one. Then, once its all drafted I go back ad work through it again, front-to-back, or if I know there are particularly troubled chapters or arcs I work there.
It varies for me. My first novel (1970's), came into my head all at once, and I spent the next few months or so typing it out with two fingers, but the second and third volumes in the trilogy were hard work, taking up o two years each, experimenting with plots and character back stories. Even now, I occasionally get a an idea that needs to be written in a marathon sitting. I no longer publish, as it's too hard, here in Australia, to find backing, or even an agent that's willing to take you on board.
recognize as in when you get to the point when you say to youself, 'i might have something to read here'.
That's the first draft. That's the funniest to read, with comments like "what the heck was I thinking?"
2nd draft is too soon to tell.
bad guy doesnt have to be a person, situation can be the bad guy?
Usually, I write 'shorts' and 'novellas', because a full-length novel would take at least a year, to near-exclusion of everything else.
My 'P for Pleistocene', which took ~22 months of hard, hard work, is currently gathering dust until I scour the final draft for 'stupids'. This will be a bit harder than I expected given the dozen PostIts from previous pass dried up and fell out...
How did it start ? I woke with a real-neat idea, scribbled the opening and some notes then, over the next few weeks, extrapolated, interpolated, tried to figure the angles, out-flank the 'oops'.
I did a LOT of research. I had to find a good setting, assemble 'rounded' characters and plausible materiel I could use, reckon a time-line. I did many, many drafts of the opening chapters, re-working them as my research progressed. Eventually, I felt confident I really could sustain the tale unto a novel's length...
I kept a 4~~6 chapter buffer, allowing me to edit clumsy phrasing and fix blunders. I often wrote, re-wrote and re-re-wrote scenes in notebooks before collating the best bits and typing them up. I sometimes composed at keyboard. Once, I woke at desk to find an entire chapter in print-tray, no memory of typing anything beyond its first scene. And, yes, it was okay !! Twice, I went several months with 'writers block', when an essential scene would NOT come right.
I wrote the core of the finale about five chapters before reaching it. As yet, the sequel only exists as the opening chapter plus a few notes and one crucial scene. Sadly, 'Real Life' intervened...