One Draft, Or Many?

How Many Drafts Should You Focus On At Once?

As writers, we are always creating new ideas to write, whether fiction, poetry, or non-fiction.

Inspiration pops up in the most unexpected places, such as while riding the city bus or standing in line to order your morning latte.

It’s a gift.

But the bombardment of ideas can get overwhelming at times, so we jot them down somewhere, knowing we’ll come back to it.

Which leaves us wondering if it’s okay to work on multiple projects or if we have to zero in on one project.

One Draft at a Time

I can understand why a lot of writers would prefer to work on one draft at a time, especially when it’s a full-length novel or when they’re newbies.

They want to put all their energy into one project, and that’s fine.

That was me when I first started writing in high school, and I wasn’t really good at it, although it wasn’t long before new ideas pushed their way onto multiple Word documents.

But writing “books” and taking classes/courses allowed me to find my writing voice and improve before I began writing online.

I applaud those who can laser-focus on one project at a time.

Many Drafts at Once

For those of us who’ve been writing for a while and have a cornucopia of ideas, having multiple drafts is better. It lets us get our ideas onto paper or a document before we forget.

We also can bounce between different projects, which is advantageous when feeling stuck on a draft.

But I’ve read posts with writers saying they have over a hundred drafts.

I’m shocked online writing platforms allow you to have that many without glitching. And that these writers have so many ideas at any given time. It makes me slightly jealous.

Although maybe they use Google Docs or Word and are recycling content.

Either way, it makes my jaw drop.

My Draft Count

Currently, I have around twenty drafts, and I keep formulating new ideas. However, a good chunk of them are just the title, subtitle, and occasionally subheadings if I know where I’m going with the piece.

Because while I have plenty of ideas, I’m not always ready to write them when they pop into my head, and I don’t like leaving them in my Notes app for long.

How to Keep Your Drafts Organized

To keep yourself from getting confused or overwhelmed, keep your drafts in one or a couple of places.

Most of mine are on Medium since I often cross-publish, and my Vocal and Substack draft sections only have ones tailored for those platforms. It also helps reduce the amount of copying and pasting required.

That’s my method, and it works well for me.

Off Platform

However, if you prefer not to store your projects on writing platforms, I suggest using Google Docs or something similar so you’re not bound to one device.

Unlike Medium or Substack, you can sort them better by topic or alphabetical order.

You can keep copies of them in case you decide to cross-publish later or if something wonky happens on whatever platform you’re on and you have to republish it.

Have as Many Drafts as You Want

As long as you can keep yourself organized, I see no problem with having fistfuls of story drafts.

If anything, I believe it’s more productive and creativity-inducing when you don’t chain yourself to one draft.

So, write away!

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