Just as there are plotters and seat of their pants (pansters) writers and levels between those two extremes. There are One drafters and Multi drafters, and all sorts of levels between these too.
Multidrafters write the rough draft and then proceed to write several other drafts before even thinking of editing it or sharing it with a group or friends. They will also think of a cool idea and rewrite the whole MS to accomodate said idea. The great thing about Multi's is that if they actually get it done, it should be awesome. The drawbacks, would be that they get so bogged down in re-writes they never finish.
One drafters on the other had write one draft and usually think it's pretty perfect. Often times they don't like to revise and instead of working to perfect a story they move on to the next idea and the story regardless of how awesome or not it is, never sees the light of day. The good thing about One's is if they actually put thier but down in a chair and suffer a little revision and editing the story should be awesome. The drawback is getting them to work on one idea long enough to prodouce a story that is ready to be seen by anyone.
I'm sure just as every writer is somewhere in between pansting and plotting they are also somewhere in between one and multi drafting.
The point of my story is this, I am a story structure panster and more of a one drafter then a multi but I know the benefit of good edits and revisions. Ask me to rewrite and my head might just roll off my shoulders and hide.
Two nights ago I had written about 900 words of some beautiful prose when my laptop freaked out and started to eat my MS letter by letter. I lost the whole 900 words and had some long moments of extreme frustration. Because I am a one drafter I was not able to reprodouce any of the origional prose and had to write something comepletely new. To be honest I am not as happy with it and I mourn the loss of those words. :(
I guess the moral of the story is, if your a one drafter and your computer has a tendency to do weird things, BACK UP your darn computer!
1 comment:
I know your pain of losing data on the computer. I can't believe how quickly it can disappear.
I don't know where I am in drafts as a writer. I think I'm still simmering and finding my voice. I have a lot of ideas, but getting them down is a huge issue.
Lovely post! Thanks!
Post a Comment