Keep the magic in your writing

Let’s Kill The Sacred Cow Of Rewriting And Over-Editing

How To Get Your Best Writing From Three Drafts

There’s a deeply held belief among writers that the real magic happens during rewrites and edits, but what if that belief is holding you back?

Back around 2010, Dean Wesley Smith wrote a blog series on Killing The Sacred Cows Of Publishing. Dean is a New York Times bestselling novelist who has written over 200 novels, nearly a dozen non-fiction books, and hundreds of short stories.

His is a voice worth listening to, especially when it comes to this non-traditional writing hack.

Dean Wesley Smith only writes three drafts.

I’ve adapted his process. Depending on what I’m writing, I’ll typically do between 3–4 drafts. My steps also differ from his slightly.

If you dig into Dean’s thoughts on the subject, it comes down to a simple, two-fold philosophy. Here’s how I’ve come to interpret it.

1. A first, quick draft unleashes your creative side.
2. Editing, by necessity, is critical thinking. Over-editing can critique the life out of your work.

Every writer is different. Writing projects differ as well. However, the more experienced a writer becomes, the more benefit is gained by this faster writing method.

I’ve applied this to writing:

• Novels
• Short stories
• Poetry
• Medium articles
• Non-fiction books
• Work emails
• Business writing
• Erotica
• Content marketing articles

One of the items in the above list is a lie. Can you guess which one?

Let’s take a look at Dean’s process.

After all, his collected works could fill a library. From Dean’s blog.

First draft I do as quickly as I can, staying solidly as much as possible in my creative side, adding in things I think about as I go along, until I get to the end of the draft. Again, I try to write as fast as the project will allow since I have discovered a long time ago that if I just keep typing, the less chance I have to get in my own way and screw things up.

Second draft I spellcheck and then give to my trusted first reader.

Third draft I touch up all the things my first reader has found and then I mail the novel or story.

If my first reader hates the story, I toss the draft away and redraft completely.

That’s my process. I am a three-draft writer. (Unless I need to redraft, then I am a six-draft writer.)

Simplified, his points are to:

• Write the first draft as quickly as you can.
• Spellcheck the draft. Give it to a second reader.
• Touchup the issues your second reader found.

And that’s it unless a complete redraft is needed. It rarely is for Dean, but when he does it, he repeats the process.

I have two variations of Dean’s process. One for short writing and another for novels.

First, most of the writing I do these days doesn’t require a second pair of eyes. I’m not saying I never make mistakes, but when writing one or more articles a day, mostly 3–8 minute pieces, there’s not enough time to bring in another reader.

There’s certainly no time for a dozen revisions.

Instead, most of my writing gets three drafts.

1. The first, quick draft.
2. A read-through draft, where I revise sentences, fix errors, and tweak the formatting.
3. A final check using Grammarly Pro.

Grammarly Pro, by the way, is 100% worth the cost. (Especially since it was a Christmas gift from one of my most cherished friends in the cosmos.)

I sometimes ask people to read for various reasons. When that’s the case, I’ll put in any needed revisions they find during a fourth and final pass.

That’s it.

Period.

Are there exceptions? Sure. Sometimes I have articles that don’t work at all. I rewrote An Open Letter To My Friend Robert Who Doesn’t Use His Real Name several times and moved whole chunks of it around at least a dozen times.

Mostly, quick is better.

Second, for novels and other long styles of writing, I usually do four drafts.

1. The first, quick draft.
2. A read-through draft, where I revise chapters, fix errors, and flesh out passages.
3. Another pass using Grammarly Pro.
4. After giving the draft to beta readers, I fix any issues they find.

Occasionally, I’ll do a 5th pass with an editor. I have a wonderfully talented editor named Kisa Whipkey. The problem? She’s wonderfully talented and in high demand. So sometimes, I skip the step.

Does the process work? You can see for yourself with my favorite work of fiction:

The takeaway? Write as fast as you can, initially.

You must edit your work. However, you can edit it too much, rewrite it too many times, and lose what made it magical in the first place.

I’m not going to go so far as to suggest you should Edit Drunk. I was writing satirically in that letter and was only maybe a little tipsy when I edited it.

Put this into practice with your next short writing. Edit it on a second pass. Run it through a grammar and spelling check. And then let it fly.

Scott Hughey didn’t mention that his least favorite part of the process is the grammar check. He’s afraid if he admits that, writers taking his advice will skip the step. U don’t want 2 do that. Tryst me. Its a big miss steak.