How many drafts do you have in your /drafts folder? As I was sitting down to write this, I glanced in mine. 73 drafts. I think this probably includes some pending posts that weren't automatically filed by my script so I should probably go through the list more slowly, doing more of a proper audit.

But how about that number? 73. That's a lot. Or...is it?

I always go back to Stephen King when I think of writing advice. I don't write fiction like he does, but I think his incredible success and discipline that aided that success makes him a figure we should pay attention to. His book about writing, titled On Writing, is probably the best single book you will find on the matter.

He talks about how he is constantly writing drafts. He locks himself in his office everyday from 7am–noon and forces himself to write; to write anything, even if it's not making progress on a book or article or whatever is his next thing coming due. That anything doesn't involve getting on social media and arguing or getting on Reddit and typing a few hundred words about why he is right and everyone else is wrong: it is writing for himself, in the interest of a story, an article, or something to amuse himself. You can imagine how five hours of writing can produce a lot of stuff. That's certainly one of the reasons he's been able to publish so many books.

Anyway, in On Writing and elsewhere he's talked about how his desk is full of drafts. His technique is after he writes a draft—whether full draft, just a scene or two, just a conversation, or just some random ideas—is to lock it in his desk and not look at it again for at least a month. He does this because many ideas always seem great when we are writing them. We get excited about what we are writing and so regardless of what it is, we love it. Making a true judgement requires some distance. After that month, he'll look at the draft again. If it sucks, he'll trash it. If it shows promise, he'll file it somewhere as a potential idea to work on.

I don't know about you, but I love that idea. And this more than anything is why I have so many drafts. Unfortunately I don't have five hours per day to just write like Stephen King does, but I do try to devote at least an hour to writing at night after the kids have gone to bed or in the morning before the wake up. My goal is to finish a post (which is usually finishing a draft in the drafts folder) and write something else. That something else could be expanding on a draft in my drafts folder or writing a new draft.

So to go back to the number in my drafts folder. Is 73 a lot? I don't know. It kind of is, but if I use Stephen King's idea of constantly adding new drafts and letting previous drafts sit for some time before even looking at them again, then 73 actually seems fairly low.

What do you think?

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David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. He blogs here and at laspina.org. Write him on Twitter or Mastodon.