Why I Keep Every Draft of My WIP

Photo credit: Images_of_Money on Flickr
Not too long ago, Katie Axelson wrote a fantastic post on The Write Practice on why you should never delete your writing. She makes a great point, and the following discussion online made me think about my editing and revision habits and how I handle sections cut from my WIPs.

It probably won't surprise you to hear that I never delete anything permanently, but I actually take it a step further: I save every draft of my WIPs. That's right, I hoard my writing.

In my pre-Scrivener days, I was a Microsoft Word fiend. After writing up the first draft of my WIP and deciding I was going to polish it to a final draft, I made a folder for my book. Inside the folder I placed everything that had to do with that WIP, from query letters to synopses to drafts that I labeled by number (Scrivener has made this much easier, but that’s another post altogether). For example, if my WIP was titled SECRET, I'd have files named SECRET, SECRET V2 (for Version 2), SECRET V3, etc. Before the start of every draft, I duplicated my most recent draft, give it a new number and start revising.

While some of you may consider the habit a little obsessive (and maybe it is), I quickly found that keeping my drafts separate allowed me to make sweeping changes without fear. I always knew that if I took something too far or deleted too much, I could always go back to my last draft (or however many drafts back I needed) and recover the original writing.

Now I'll admit that for a while, I never actually had need of going back to a previous draft. I had it as an option, of course, but it was an option that I found little need to exercise. That is, until my fifth manuscript.

My fifth WIP has gone through the most changes out of all of my manuscripts. While I currently have six specifically saved drafts, truth be told, there were probably more. The original draft was written in third person past with dual points of view. Then I switched it to first person past with a single point of view. Then first person present. Then two first person present POVs.

That last switch, from one POV back to two is the change where I was immediately glad that I hadn't deleted my previous drafts. While the new POV wasn't the same character that the old POV was written in, having the older draft allowed me to more easily figure out natural breaks for the second POV, and I was even able to take many of those older POV scenes and rewrite them to fit the new character.

I had never been so glad that I obsessively saved my writing.

The thing about permanently deleting anything is that you obviously can never get it back—and truth be told, you don't really know if you'll ever need to. Keeping old drafts really doesn't take up much space on a hard drive, and while I doubt you will ever regret saving old drafts, you may one day find yourself wishing you hadn't permanently deleted that old scene, or draft, or whatever it is that you threw into the abyss.

And if you never look at those old saved drafts? Well, no harm done. But at least you know they're there in case you ever need it.

Do you save old drafts, or are you a deleter? Share your experience in the comments below! 

16 comments:

Melissa Maygrove said...

Wow. Interesting point.

Ava Jae said...

I figure it's better to be safe than sorry. I'd rather have drafts I'm never going to look at than not have a draft that I wanted to go back to.

Ava Jae said...

Thank you. :)

Scott Moon said...

I agree that saving old versions is a good idea, especially of some characters wind up with their own spin of stories. I have started saving chapter by chapter, because it is easier to run the Serenity Editor on smaller documents. I date each version I save as well.

My question for you is about Scrivener. I have been on the fence with Scrivener for a little while now. Is it worth it. I use a PC rather than a Mac. Is it really that good? A lot of people seem to like it.

Ava Jae said...

I've played around with it on both PC and Mac and while I like the Mac version better, it works wonderfully on both platforms. I would absolutely recommend trying out the free trial. It'll allow you to get a feel for the program for 30 days and decide for yourself whether or not it's for you. :)

Giselle Abreu said...

I agree that you should save old drafts, not just because you might need them, which is true, but because sometimes it's just fun going back to some of those old things and laughing at how bad you were then. It's always nice being able to see how much you've grown as you continue writing.

Ava Jae said...

Very true! It can be encouraging to see how much you've improved.

James Garcia Jr said...

Hi, Ava, I'm so glad I'm using a different browser now. It's so nice to be able to finally leave comments here, rather than hunt down your FB page. Lol!

Yeah, I save my drafts, too, but not necessarily because I've ever really needed them. I just do. In fact, I've got stacks of paper versions of my earlier writing that I really need to shred!!

Have a great one!

-Jimmy
http://jamesgarciajr.blogspot.com/

Ava Jae said...

Hey Jimmy! Glad to see the commenting system is working for you now. (Although you can totally still comment on FB if that's ever easier ^_^).

My draft-saving habit is more of a precautionary thing. As I said, most times I don't need it, but every once in a while...

Fida said...

Hi! I save all my drafts, too! I haven't used them yet, but I'm sure I will. I'm going through, the first time, to cut parts of my wip. I'm nervous, yet relieved I can find later if I want it again.

Maya Panika said...

I am an obsessive saver of old work - drafts and notes and EVERYTHING. It does get confusing sometimes, like a well-cluttered attic. I know I should have a clean-out, but never do.

Peter Reynard said...

Time to be a geek. I save my drafts using version control. Something like Git can keep track of your versions by storing only the changes. It also lets you see what the differences are between your current version and any previous saved version. Version control was originally intended for code/programs but it works pretty well for my drafts.

Ava Jae said...

Clean out your writing from your hard drive?! *hugs hard drive* Never! Well. I shouldn't say never. But I've yet to do it, and I've had multiple computers with files that date pretty far back...

Ava Jae said...

That sounds interesting. I take it it works off RTF files?

Peter Reynard said...

version control systems like Git works for any file but they work particularly well for simple text files. I think new versions of Pages and Word are working towards seamlessly integrating version control. So when you click save, they want to store just the changes you made. That way you can see all previous versions (kinda like an undo that goes back forever)

Ava Jae said...

I'm pretty sure there's something like that integrated into Pages and Word, I've just never really explored it. Interesting concept, though--and it sounds rather useful.

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