How many drafts?

[dracenstein]

I'm trying to write a zombie novel, having done my first draft, guesstimate 95,000 words. I once heard that a novel goes through seven drafts before being submitted to a publisher. Is that still true? My first draft was hand written in a pad, but now I'm using a computer, so when I'm typing it in, I'm expanding it with more material (I knew I was missing a lot of stuff out, but just wanted to have a complete story down, so that I knew what was missing), but when I come back to it, I spot stuff I want changed and change it. Dialogue, punctuation and indeed moving whole sections about. I have arranged it as prologue, three parts and an epilogue. I'm getting towards the end of the first part on the second draft. So I'm asking, how many drafts? Ideal word range? All that I'll tell you about it, is that it's a genesis/outbreak story with Romero-esque zombies and a conspiracy (make of that what you will), set in England (because that's where I live and work).

[rightwing401]

Well let's see if I can help you any. I too am in the middle of rewritting a zombie novel myself. Ideally, I would shoot for no more than three drafts. The first one, which you have obviously already done, is just getting the concept down on paper. The second one that you're currently working on is going back over the material, finding ways to expand the ideas that you have and increase the flow of both dialogue and story plot. What I would recommend for your last rewrite is to let a few people that you feel you can trust read over it, asking them for honest opinions on what they feel they liked and didn't like about the novel. A good tip that you might want to try is to find someone who isn't in your target audience that will read the novel and review it. This may sound kind of absurd, but I tried it out with my fiance who can't stand horror novels, and as impossible as it may seem I learned a lot from her review. Since I myself have never published anything, I can only give you an estimate on the ideal size. I imagine an ideal novel would be no less than 150 pages and no more than 350. Reading your last part, I will say that it is a good idea to write what you know. I myself couldn't write a proper zombie novel set in your country because I wouldn't know how everyone interacts, what the cities are like, or how effective a people lacking personal firearms would be at fending off a living dead onslaught. I hope this helps and I wish you best of luck in your endevores. Personally, I think you should ask either deadpunk or arcades for more senior writting advice.

[Deadman_Deluxe]

Personally, I think you should ask either deadpunk or arcades for more senior writting advice. *Lick's his lips and play's a "humorous" down tempo tune on a large brass trombone* WMMAAARP WMMAAAAARP WMMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRPPP

[Danny]

too be honest i have tryed my hand at wirting novels but not for a few years now ,im strictly script writing of late, but what i learnt from that is 3 times is best, cus if you do it around 5 times then you will do so many "yeah i like that but it could be better if"'s that it could end up nothing like what you were aiming for or it could lose its way alltogether.

[coma]

I have done just one with some edits to as much as 10 plus drafts. Basically I bust out an outline, then do a rough, then tune it up until I feel like its good. Truth is, you just go until you feels its done wtihout getting too anal retentive. You're approach to the work is the right one with the highest likelyhood for completion. Get the big overview, then go back and tighten and add/subtract. Poking along a bit at a time, sharpening only as you go is the path to never finishing anything. Far as length, I cant say becaue I write until it's done. I let the work tell me how long it needs to be.

[Danny]

yeah length wise i find its easier to write like stephen king not just chapter 1 to the last but in little parts, or go the terry prachet way with no chapters at all, dont try to aim for a certain amount of chapters just let the story fun its course naturally. and if you plan a sequel, dont write this thinking about the sequel or it may make you make less of an effort on the first, and if that isnt a hit no one would want a second, believe me i actually have seen someone make this mistake.

[dracenstein]

Nice advice, friends. Thanks. I do have ideas for about three sequels, some not linear, but there's no guarrantee I ever get to write them, my next project is still an idea, but not a zombie book.

[Arcades057]

*Lick's his lips and play's a "humorous" down tempo tune on a large brass trombone* WMMAAARP WMMAAAAARP WMMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRPPP Pardon me, but does someone seem a bit jealous? As to the OP, drafts are never over until they're over. I'm doing #8 right now and it's taking me a long, long time. As Rightwing said, don't let the pages run away with you. Clear, concise, coherent; that's what you want. Character development is a must, but don't go overboard. Generally you want something to happen in your story every few pages to keep people interested, and that's something that too many people neglect. Now, I don't mean "teh zombies overrun teh KOMPOUND!!!11" every five pages, but something that keeps the reader reading. Otherwise your writing stagnates and then you only have the first few pages to hold onto... Think about the arc that your characters take; does it work that way in real life, or does it sound right to you? If not, you need to make it work to you, then you can convince others through your writing. Last, don't make it perfect, because to you, it'll never be. If you spent 100 years and a thousand rewrites, it'll still be sub-par to you, but in its 5th draft it was perfect to everyone else. Such a thing as too much, you know... Good luck with it! And by the way, make sure when you decide to publish that you shop around. Don't jump at the first offer like SOME morons do...

[dracenstein]

Might have set it in the wrong part of the year, all this lovely fog we've been having. Anybody want to go zombie hunting in this fog? By the time you see their heads, they're taking lumps out of you! By the way, I think I've finished part one. Part two coming along nicely, for now, anyway.

[Arcades057]

I think the fog adds a certain amount of drama to the story.

[MinionZombie]

Not that I do novels, I'm all about scripts and have been for a good long while now (used to write stories several years ago when I'd only bother with one draft , lol, a lazy teenager so I was)... Anyway, with my script writing, I generally do 4 drafts. Obviously, being shorter they don't require as much work as a novel would (I write short film scripts mainly - 10 to 20 pages generally). The first draft is all about getting down the bulk of the ideas, (prior to this I plan - as long as it takes, I don't force the ideas, I let them come to me whenever they want and I jot them down brainstorm/list style). Once the first draft is done, the second is all about major changes, slotting in new bricks - if you will - into your roughly built house ... adding on a porch, a new roof and other such things related to this analogy. The third draft continues this trend, but more based around finesse and moderately sized ideas being tweaked, or adding in things forgotten in the first two drafts. I usually only do 4 drafts, so the fourth is all about tweaking, polishing and nip/tucking, making any last minute changes - the last chance to fiddle any parts that I've been a bit "mmm, I duno" about throughout the first 3 drafts. This year I wrote a much longer script (the fifth draft clocked in at 147 pages), mainly an exercise for future scripting writing, but it also acted as a cathartic exercise for myself. Anyway, beyond the third draft the bulk of the script was polished, but it was about working on specific troublesome segments, adding stuff in/taking things out/moving things elsewhere and so on. I was gonna do a sixth draft, but just couldn't be bothered. For a script I was never gonna film, I figured I'd done enough to it. However, it certainly helped as writing practice, and several ideas/scenes from that are going into a new script idea I've got sitting on the back burner (will get to it after I've got "I Am Zombie Man 2" all wrapped up and finished). With that, I'll do my usual number of drafts. I think anywhere between 4 and 8 drafts is a good target zone. It depends on how much attention you pay when doing new drafts, I tend to do fewer drafts, but pay a lot of attention to detail when doing new drafts. Not sure if any of this helped, but well ... merry christmas!

[UndeadAnthology]

There is no specific number of rewrites required before a novel is submitted to a publisher. My advice would be to work on it until you feel like you can't make it any better. Let several knowledgeable persons who will give you a real critique (i.e. not blow smoke up your ass) read it. Put on your flak jacket, take their advice in, and rework the novel again. Put it aside for a while. Come back and go through the whole process again with fresh eyes. Repeat that process as many times as it takes. There are a lot of authors trying to get published. You need your novel to stand out among a huge crowd. Part of the way to do that is to polish the novel until it shines. Jacob

[Todd Tjersland]

According to the Guide to Fiction Writer's Market, the average piece of serial fiction is approx. 90k words. 50k words is generally understood to be the minimum for a novel. Anything under that is considered a short story. As an example of drafts and final word count, my book, Deathbreed: A Zombie Novel, went through seven drafts and nine months of endless tinkering... The final word count was 161,000, and that was after merciless editing and revisions. The 161k ultimately translated into 392 typeset pages when published, including a six-page preview of the upcoming sequel and a three-page author interview. Hope this helps. Good luck with your zombie novel!