November 14, 2022

Introduction

When you’re writing something for your business, how many drafts should you go through before calling it done? Is it better to do several drafts, or just a few?

There are pros and cons to both approaches. Let’s take a look at them.

Fewer Drafts

One advantage of doing fewer drafts is that it saves you time. The fewer drafts you do, the shorter the writing process takes. So if you want to get your content out there quickly, reduce the number of drafts you do.

On the other hand, when you do fewer drafts, your work may not be as polished as it could be. Each revision is an opportunity to make your writing better, so if you skip some of them, you’re missing out on that chance.

More Drafts

Obviously, the more times you revise, the better your writing will be—you have more chances to improve your work. With more drafts, you’re more likely to catch errors you missed on previous read-throughs.

However, an issue with writers who do tons of drafts before publishing is that they start making arbitrary changes that don’t significantly improve the quality of the draft. They believe that since they are continuing to find things in their writing that they want to change, then it warrants more and more drafts. However, the small changes they’re making aren’t really moving the bar in terms of quality anymore. This is a common form of procrastination that is disguised as revision.

What’s the Best Balance?

If you write your own content for your business (i.e. you don’t outsource it) then you’ll be faced with the decision of how many drafts to do before publishing. The thing about writing content is that it often takes away from other functions in your business—functions that you may deem to be more important than producing content.

So the key is to find a balance that works for you. Ultimately the decision will be yours, but I have a few suggestions.

My Recommendation

I’d say the longer your piece of writing is, the more drafts you should do.

For a blog post that’s 1,000 words, I usually do 2-3 drafts. For something longer, like an eBook, I’ll do 5-6 drafts.

I realize two or three drafts might not seem like much, even if just for a blog post. However, there’s another step that I think is very important that directly impacts how many (or few) drafts you can get away with.

Have a Critique Partner

A critique partner is someone you trust to give you honest feedback on your writing. It’s someone who will point out errors and help make your writing better.

Having a critique partner is important for two reasons. First, they help you to catch errors that you might have missed. Second, they give you an outside perspective on your work. It’s easy to get too close to your own writing and lose sight of what needs to be improved. A critique partner can help you with that.

A critique partner can really help cut down the amount of time you spend in multiple drafts. The more drafts you do, the more familiar you become with what you’ve written. The more familiar you are with what you’ve written, the more your eyes and mind will skim and glide through your words since you’re already well-acquainted with your content.

A critique partner, on the other hand, will read your words with fresh eyes. They will catch things that you missed because you are already so familiar with your work. In this way, having a critique partner can help you move through the revision process more quickly.

A Bonus Tip on Drafts

If you have the time, I’d recommend spacing out your drafts by at least 24 hours. Considering what I mentioned above regarding critique partners, the goal of getting through the drafts efficiently is to view your writing as objectively as possible. When you wait 24 hours to revisit something you’ve written, you are able to come back to it with reasonably fresh eyes. You’ll be in a different mood and in a different headspace. You may even be in a different location, if you do your work remotely from a laptop. All of these things help you view your writing from a different state from which you originally wrote it. This will help you immensely with catching errors that you missed before.

Conclusion

Deciding on the number of revisions to do before publishing your content is always a matter of balance. You don’t want to do too many drafts because you’ll never get anything published. But you also don’t want to do too few drafts and end up with subpar quality content. Find the balance that works for you and, if you can, have a critique partner to help you move through the process more quickly.

And never forget the benefit of a quality critique partner. Here at English Outsourced, we offer content improvement services to help you hone high-quality content for your business. We specialize in working with businesses owned by people who speak English as a second language who want to attract western, English-speaking clients and customers. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you improve the quality of your writing.