How Many Drafts are Enough?

When asked in a 1992 interview for The Paris Review, "How many drafts do you go through in writing a story?" Grace Paley said, "I don’t like to count. I never understand what people mean when they say they’ve done twenty drafts or something. Does that mean they’ve typed it twenty times, or what? I’m always changing things as I go. It’s always substantially different by the time I’ve finished. I do it till it’s done."

And in an article from best-selling author Jami Attenberg, my favorite quote: "There is no perfect first draft in the history of ever."

Write that on a Post-it and stick it to your computer as you're writing.

When I started my first novel, many years ago, I created a Word document. Classmates.com was the title of that manuscript and it was the story of a 50-year old woman who reconnects online with her high school sweetheart on the same day her significant-other proposes. I'm not sure I can count the number of drafts I did of that version, or the version called Mr. Right-Enough (title change when the company Classmates.com declined to let me use their name), or the final, published version What More Could You Wish For, but a quick glance at the files at left will give you a clue. 

Now I use Scrivener for my writing, which automatically saves your document way more often than you will ever want it to, so essentially, every time it saves, that could be a draft.

How many drafts are enough? My agent told me there is an axiom in publishing: Seven drafts to final. At least, in my opinion.

What exactly is a draft? As a serial editor I am constantly changing things. Is there a specific number of edits before you call it another draft? A word? A paragraph? A chapter?

Questions:

1. What counts as a draft?

2. Does it matter? 

Answers:

1. Who cares?

2. No.

Finish draft one, then keep going until it's the best it can be, keeping in mind we're not looking for perfection because perfection is a myth. Make it the best it can be at the time.

Or keep going until you're simply sick of it.

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