What to do with my First Draft?

Now this is a really interesting question.

Most people don't really know what a first draft is, let along a second, third or fourth draft.

Oodles of ‘write your book’ programs and websites don’t even mention the word ‘draft’ at all. It’s if by magic that someone who wants to write something can simply write it and it’ll be perfect and ready to publish and make you millions.

The reality is substantially different.

As a professional business storyteller everything I write goes through AT LEAST three drafts if not four or five. This is normal and the draft and revision process is as important as completing your first draft.

It’s the process by which your initial writing is reworked, refined, explored, revised and revised again so it can become the BEST it can possibly be.

The first of many drafts

The most useful insight I can share about your first draft is that it’s the first of many.

It may well take you 2-3 months to get from your first draft to your final draft, and even then it’s still only a draft.

How to get from first draft to final draft

How good does that feel? You’ve finished your manuscript. It’s taken you 3,4 maybe 6 months and, finally, it’s done. You can tick that off your bucket list, you’ve written a book.

But you haven’t. You’ve completed the first draft of your book. You’ve got a few more steps to go, so rub out that tick you put next to ‘written a book’.

For most people (including me) your first draft is exactly that…the first of many drafts.

So what’s a standard process for drafts? There isn’t one really and it depends on how much time you have spent thinking and planning your content BEFORE you started writing. This said there is a pattern/process and it applies to pretty much ALL writing.

Jaqui’s first draft to final manuscript process

1. Complete your first draft

2. Leave your first draft to ‘rise’ just like bread. In other words leave it alone for 1-2 weeks.

3. Revisit your draft and be eager and prepared to knead it into a new shape. With a fresh set of eyes you will see words, sentences and paragraphs that you want to change, add to or even delete. You might even move some sections around between chapters.

4. Seek input and this mean being brave. Select 2-3 people who you know and who know the topic you are writing about and ask them to review what you’ve written and provide feedback.

5. Once you’ve received all the feedback. Rework your masterpiece yet again being true to where you started and what you believe but taking on the input you have sought.

6. Seek more feedback and revise.

7. Decide ‘the time has come’ and you’re ready.

8. Get your final draft proofread. This is an essential step.

9. Revise your ‘final’ manuscript, take in the proof readers comments (usually a sea of red track changes) yet again to create a FINAL, FINAL manuscript.

10. Take a break, at least a couple of weeks…you’ll need it.

11. Revise your manuscript again and realise that it will NEVER be perfect, that you can’t reinsert so much stuff that you really want to because if you did your book will never be published…but there are other options for this content.

12. Decide your manuscript is now FINAL and it’s ready for production. This is both an exhilarating and terrifying thought.

13. Know that there’s still one last chance to change a few things when you get the page layouts…but this is going to be costly.

14. Approving the page proofs for printing. This usually takes a bottle of wine or two, a support team and, quite frankly, a huge leap of faith.

This is what you ‘do’ with your first draft.

This is what I do with every draft of every book I write and more as I have clients who have insight and input into the drafting process.

Become a drafting Queen/King

There’s a great story about Winston Churchill. Churchill was renowned for his brilliant oratory, off the cuff speeches in parliament and more. In his biographies he shared that he spent hours and sometimes days researching and writing is speeches and ‘throw away’ lines.

Here’s a terrific quote from him: “I’m just preparing my impromptu remarks.”

So, take a leaf out of Winston’s book and work on and prepare your first draft until it’s the best it can be . . . then you have your book.