How many drafts does it take to get to the end of a manuscript? If you ask 10 authors, you'll get 10 answers. Here's what works for me--a description of each draft and a look at my mental journey along the way--be very scared.

Draft #1
Time required: 5 months
This is where daily discipline comes into play. I work from a synopsis, but I don't always know what happens next. This method keeps things interesting for me. And if I don't know what happens next, how can the reader? :-)

Mental Outlook: Everything ranging from stark terror (This whole story blows!) to sheer delight (Hey, nice metaphor, Denise!)

Draft #2 
Time required: Fifteen minutes daily for 5 months
This draft happens daily during the five months of Draft #1. Prior to writing each day I read the previous day's work and do some tweaking.

Mental Outlook: Happy. This is easy peasy and a great way of procrastinating the writing of the first draft.

Draft #3
Time required: Sometimes none, sometimes an hour
This is easy because it's mostly done by Colleen. As I finish each chapter, I shoot it to her, and she tells me what's wrong. I just have to fix it. I make fixes before I go on unless it's too intensive (I don't like your heroine!) In such cases, I add it to a list of things to fix when the first draft is done.

Mental Outlook: Sometimes surprised by things I didn't consider or things I miscalculated. Always grateful for the extra set of eyes.

Interlude
Time required: One day
Now it's time to go to my list of things that need fixing. Timeline stuff, changes I made in chapter 12 that will affect things in chapters 3, 6 and 8, and adding that great line of dialogue I thought of while taking my son to the orthodontist. This is my Honey-Do List except I'm the Honey that has to do it.

Draft #4
Time required: One week
This is when I go back and read the manuscript from start to finish. I look at the big picture (character arc, faith thread, the plot in general. This is the most objective view I'll ever get of my manuscript which is why:

Mental Outlook: Fear and trembling with a hint of throw-myself-in-front-of-a-bus.

Draft #5
Time required: One week
My focus narrows down to finer things: sentence structure, word choices. I focus on sentence clarity and brevity and tweak dialogue so that it sounds more realistic. I also make sure the setting and characters have adequate physical descriptions and that there are adequate sensory details to acclimate the reader to each scene.

Mental Outlook: Weeeeeeeeee! My favorite draft.

Draft #6
Time required: One week
I make another run-through doing all the same things I did in draft #5, picking up any typos I made. I jot out discussion question as I read through and add them to the end of the document. I finish with a spell-check. By the time this draft is finished, the manuscript as perfect as I'm capable of making it.

Mental Outlook: Why can't draft #1 be this fun?

Finale: Pry my fingers off the pages and turn it in to editor before deadline.

Mental Outlook: Yay I did it! mixed with What if she hates it? and Oh, why didn't I do this?

If you break down your job into phases, which is your favorite and least favorite?

Labels: authors, Denise Hunter, drafts, writing