Drafting

I'm still working on the draft of First Sight. The going is slow, but steady. I've been able to write a little over 17k words on this draft. Over the course of typing, I've actually added about 4k words. Which is good because the original draft of the novel is just over 40k words. That's really short, I know. Hence why I'm happy about the expansion.

That's one thing I've noticed about my writing that I'm interested to see if it will carry over into the first draft of whatever I write next. I write short first drafts. The first draft of Alana was only a little over 66k words. While this is still technically an acceptable length for a YA fantasy novel, it's on the short side. Most fall well into the 75k+ range, even for first novels.

So with both the first drafts of my two novels being on the short side, that makes me wonder if my next novel's first draft will also be on the short side. Perhaps it won't be, since I seem to incorporate the things I learn each time I write something new. Still, I have noticed that I tend to write economically and then come back and add more later on. This just seems to work for me. I get the bones down and then come back and flesh it out later on.

What about you? Do you tend to write long and edit down later or write short and add more later?