I don't write drafts, either. It just takes me a long time to write the paper, and when I'm done, I'm done. If I handwrite first, I'll usually edit when I type it up, but if I just type it, it comes out in its final form. I always hated it when CC professors asked for drafts. Ugh!
I've never written short stories, though, so I don't know if I would approach it differently or not.
Hey! : ) Yeah, I'd rather just turn in a final version and keep it simple. In my classes, people usually ask me how far I am on my paper. Since I edit as I go, they're typically ahead of me. But it evens out later when they have to go back and change stuff.
When I first started writing stories, I expected them to work like papers. They're surprisingly different. In some ways, they're even harder to do.
Boy, do I know what you mean. When I first write a story, I feel like it's an extension of me. Any criticism is like criticism of my soul. You're right that it usually takes a few weeks for a reasonable degree of separation to develop.
You're right that drafts can be very boring. As for your writing process: If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Except for when I completely rewrite a scene (or an entire novel), I'm never quite sure when I move one from draft to the next because I'm editing as I write each line, each paragraph. I'm editing after I've finished it, before I move on to the next scene. I'm going back to edit and new things occur to me. Then when I've completed the entire draft, I go back and edit some more. They all kind of seem to blur together for me.
I haven't considered myself done yet with my wip, but once I reach the point where I feel like the only changes I'm making now are tiny little line edits that really don't make any difference, then I'm done.
As for papers in school, I hated the whole draft thing too. I edited as I wrote and that's really hard to show for teachers. I pretty much considered my hand written draft the first one, then I'd edit as I typed it up and that was my final draft.
I usually do several layers of editing, too. On my novel, I've been writing very careful sentences, going back and editing scenes, and then revising chapter by chapter. Altogether, I spend much more time revising than I do on the actual writing. That's probably the case for other writers as well.
I like your criterion for figuring out when the work is done. My creative writing professor kind of shook it up for me, though, when he started recommending changes that I just didn't see the need for. It sort of caused me to doubt myself. I'm thinking that my stories might not be done after all...
In general, I don't like it when teachers try to prescribe a writing process. By this point in college, I've developed my own. Some people come into the Writing Center wanting help in coming up with a writing process. In that case I help them develop one that (hopefully) works for them.
For essays, I edit as I go and don't bother with drafts anymore; I'd just stress out too much trying to make it "perfect" if I did.
My writing process is different for books, though. I'll start writing it by hand, and will type those scenes up before I'm done with the book, editing as I go. Then, once the book is fully written and typed, I edit it on the computer, print out a copy and edit some more, type those in, hit head and repeat. I stop the editing process when my writing no longer makes me want to hit my head. XD
Hey, that's a good way to know when to stop! : ) I'm coming close to that point with a few of my stories, but there are still parts that are cringe-worthy.
A lot of people are saying that they write a first draft by hand. I think that's really interesting. Right now I just do everything on the computer, but I might try going back to notebooks just for fun--and to see whether it changes things for the better. What made you decide to keep doing first drafts by hand?
I've tried writing first drafts on the computer, but I've discovered that I can more easily shake off my inner critic when writing by hand. I'm not concerned with the story being perfect, just the story being written; I can be critical once I start typing it up.
I write drafts for papers because I have to; in a lot of my classes "peer review" is a required part of the class and it's part of my grade. When I'm in a situation where having a draft is not required, I'll write the paper and wait a couple of days, then go back to it and give it the once-over.
Short stories, though, are a completely different animal. There's no formal structure, no thesis statement. This is a good thing for us creative types, but it's a bad thing, too---without the structure, some of us tend to go way off on the woolly thickets redundancy. This is an okay thing for a opening draft, because in the opening drafts it's still about finding the story. You're just flailing along, grabbing anything that sounds nice out of your mind and throwing it onto the computer screen. Outlining an academic paper before writing it can help lots, but outlining a short story doesn't seem to offer the same kind of support (though I suppose it could for some people; to me the end result feels artificial and labored). I think because the
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I think you're right about why short stories are different. When I'm first writing a story, I let myself write whatever comes into my head. That allows for the richness of detail that makes stories convincing. If I try to limit myself on the first draft, I simply don't end up with enough material. When I first started my novel, I did an outline. But I'm trying not to freak out that the novel is straying from the outline. That would be a big mistake. For my next novel, I don't think I'll be doing an outline at all
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I've never written short stories, though, so I don't know if I would approach it differently or not.
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When I first started writing stories, I expected them to work like papers. They're surprisingly different. In some ways, they're even harder to do.
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You're right that drafts can be very boring. As for your writing process: If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
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I haven't considered myself done yet with my wip, but once I reach the point where I feel like the only changes I'm making now are tiny little line edits that really don't make any difference, then I'm done.
As for papers in school, I hated the whole draft thing too. I edited as I wrote and that's really hard to show for teachers. I pretty much considered my hand written draft the first one, then I'd edit as I typed it up and that was my final draft.
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I like your criterion for figuring out when the work is done. My creative writing professor kind of shook it up for me, though, when he started recommending changes that I just didn't see the need for. It sort of caused me to doubt myself. I'm thinking that my stories might not be done after all...
In general, I don't like it when teachers try to prescribe a writing process. By this point in college, I've developed my own. Some people come into the Writing Center wanting help in coming up with a writing process. In that case I help them develop one that (hopefully) works for them.
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My writing process is different for books, though. I'll start writing it by hand, and will type those scenes up before I'm done with the book, editing as I go. Then, once the book is fully written and typed, I edit it on the computer, print out a copy and edit some more, type those in, hit head and repeat. I stop the editing process when my writing no longer makes me want to hit my head. XD
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A lot of people are saying that they write a first draft by hand. I think that's really interesting. Right now I just do everything on the computer, but I might try going back to notebooks just for fun--and to see whether it changes things for the better. What made you decide to keep doing first drafts by hand?
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Also, pens are cheaper than computer ink. ;)
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Short stories, though, are a completely different animal. There's no formal structure, no thesis statement. This is a good thing for us creative types, but it's a bad thing, too---without the structure, some of us tend to go way off on the woolly thickets redundancy. This is an okay thing for a opening draft, because in the opening drafts it's still about finding the story. You're just flailing along, grabbing anything that sounds nice out of your mind and throwing it onto the computer screen. Outlining an academic paper before writing it can help lots, but outlining a short story doesn't seem to offer the same kind of support (though I suppose it could for some people; to me the end result feels artificial and labored). I think because the ( ... )
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