(subject has nothing to do with this post, though it is striking... mm, yes).
I have been wondering for the past few days about how many drafts one should realy write of a short story.
"As many as need to be written!" says the voice from the back of the gallery. Well, to you voice, I say "Thanks for the non-answer, ass," and then I hurl an eraser, because the place I'm imagining myself posing such a question is quickly becoming an old style classroom with chalkboards and everything. And, that eraser finds its target, thank you very much!
Anyway, I'm on draft three of my current little thing, holding the draft in my hands, and considering, still, making more changes. Small ones, this time, narrow changes vs. the wide ones I've made from each other draft up until this point. I'm just wondering, though... are four drafts needed on a 15 page short, or did I just really have to do a serious routing on this one, scoring out the crap that must've been so deep in the first draft.
It is different with short stories, though. Where as I can zip through the entirety of this story in a few minutes, doing this on one of my longer works has to be done on a chapter by chapter basis. The short presents immediate issues, the longer format story may have fundamental, deep seated issues, but they may not become clear until much later in the story. Sometimes, there, you lose a sense of voice from previous chapters when you narrow your focus so much, but it's the only practical way I've found to self edit. Even this thing, as short as it is, is shoehorned into four small sections in my word processor (ah, the scriv).
Ok, it's getting late... I'd better re-read this draft one more time, fix stuff and print one more copy of this thing, then go sleep. I'd like this sucker to be in the mail by monday morning... which I hope isn't an unreasonable goal.
