With the first draft of Choices reaching 20,000 words, I want to talk about how I’m aiming in bringing the gap between the first and second draft closer.
The first draft for Oranje was really rough. Like, seriously sketchy in places. It clocked in around 65,000 words. For comparison, the final version of Oranje is 112,000 words. I basically rewrote the whole thing when doing the second draft, something I’m definitely hoping to avoid this time round.
What I think will aid me this time round is having a finished book under my belt. It’s not just the experience of doing a first and second draft, but also going through the editing process and knowing what parts of my own writing to look out for and improve.
There will certainly be work to do between the first and second drafts, that’s inevitable. My aim is to make it all about fixing and improving the story, not rewriting every chapter because I didn’t have the knowledge. The gap between getting both done for Oranje was over 3 months. This time round I’m aiming for one.
It’ll all be down to what I’ve learnt simply by writing and finishing a book.