Drafts and the Editing Process

The first draft:
Step #1:
Write like crazy.
My first draft is just me writing like crazy until I get to the point that I say: It's done! When I start writing I don't let anything stop me, not spelling nor grammar nor irrational scenes of weirdness. I just write and write and write. It is better to get it all down, uninterrupted, and edit out mistakes later.

Draft number two:
Step #2: Spell check!

My second draft is quick and easy and very, very simple and starts when I run my manuscript though my word processor's spell-check and grammar check, which gets out most, though not all of those mistakes in about a half an hour.

A time to rest.
Step #3:
Waiting to Forget.
Than I put it aside of a week or a month or even 3 months, and start writing my next book. This allows me to forget what I wrote, to some extent, so that when I move on the the next stage of editing, I can look at it anew.

The third draft begins:
Step #4:
Reading for Relevancy.
For my third draft, I open up the file and sit down and read the whole thing straight through. While I'm reading, I am making changes, checking facts, deleting irrelevant things, adding stuff I'd forgotten to put in, etc.

When paper bleeds: the fourth draft begins.Step # 5:
Show No Mercy.

For my fourth draft, I print the whole thing, up with 1" margins on all sides, and double spaces. This is when the "real" editing begins, as I sit down with a red Sharpie in hand and start making changes, deleting whole paragraphs, rearranging stuff in different orders, correcting all the spelling and grammar errors that the spell checker missed (like no/know or were/where or there/their). I also check for passive voice and make changes to correct it. I end up with papers all over the room, all bleeding in red ink.

This step can take 3 or 6 or more months.

The end is near:
Step # 6: Polishing the Final Draft.
For my fifth (and usually last) draft, I take the stake of red marked papers, and than make all of those changes on the word processor file. The last thing I do, is to run it through the spell checker once again, just in case of any typos.