Some parts of the writing process are pretty straightforward–you put down words, taking care to organize them into sentences, paragraphs, scenes and chapters (assuming you’re working on a novel) in order to tell some kind of story. Other parts seem less sharply defined, perhaps a reflection that each writer tackles these other parts differently.
But still, I wonder, and so I ask:
- How much of the first draft remains in the final version? 50%? 20%? 0.5%?
- If the percentage above is low, is it because major chunks of the story get chucked/reworked or is it because sentence after sentence is meticulously altered?
- How many drafts does a story usually go through?
- How often does the writer know how the story will end before writing the ending?
- Do most writers write the story in order or do they jump around scenes and assemble them later?
- How often is stuff tossed in because it sounds neat, resulting in the writer later having to go back to make the neat stuff fit the rest of the story?
And probably a whole lot more. The big ones are the first two.
Any writers that are not spambots are welcome to chime in.
