What are the differences between the first draft and the final draft of a story or novel?
The first draft contains everything you wanted to say. The final draft contains what is essential to the story.
The first draft is likely to have more abstractions, while the final draft should be brimming with significant detail.
The first draft may be longer or shorter than the final draft, depending on your inclinations. I usually edit out many thousands of words over the course of my revisions, but some writers create a skeletal first draft and flesh it out later. I tend to write an overblown first draft and pare it down over time.
The first draft contains everything you wanted to say. The final draft contains what is essential to the story.
The first draft is your baby, the thing you can’t let go of. The final draft is your concession that a book must be interesting, it must be cognizant of an audience, and it must make the reader want to keep turning pages. By “concession” I do not mean that you have sold your literary soul, only that you have found a way to combine your best vision and your skills, in order to make a thing of beauty that is both meaningful and entertaining.
Do you want a system for revising your novel? Download the workbook Next Draft: Tools for Revision, book four in the Paperclip Method Novel Writing Toolkit.
