Whelp, that’s just how writing works. The author throws a bunch of words on the page, liberally slashes away at them with a red pen, and then replaces them with more different words.
—Charlie Hills, September 20, 2019

While that broadly describes how writing works, individual authors do follow their own, unique editing patterns, chief of which is the number of times one cycles through the red pen phase.

It’s rare, but not completely unheard of, for an author to write a single draft and publish it. But to that end, sometimes people also win the Powerball or get struck by lightning. Two drafts is still pushing it. Three seems to be a magic number. It goes like so:

• First Draft. Author spits out the raw story, then walks away from it.
• Second Draft. Author makes a cleanup pass, worthy of showing an editor, beta reader, or literally any other human being.
• Third Draft. Author incorporates all feedback, makes final revisions.

Easy peasy!

My system (patent pending) is a little more complex. But it also produces zero results, so you really can’t overlook its potential:

• Hey, I have an idea for a book!
• Put idea on hold for ten minutes to ten months.
• Write an opening chapter.
• Write it again.
• Walk away.
• Write anywhere from 30,000 to 120,000 words.
• Walk away.
• Rewrite the opening chapter.
• Wait a week.
• Rewrite the opening chapter.
• Wait two days (no more, no less — this is important!)
• Rewrite the opening chapter.
• Rewrite the second chapter.
• Rewrite the third no second third opening chapter.
• Hey, I have an idea for a book!

And people wonder why I decided to give up. But it’s all good. I’m doing my best to plow forward with this latest story and although it got a slow start (six and a half years), it’s going better now and I may just finish this one. Then again, I may also win the Powerball or get struck by lighting.