The Unfinished Draft :: aka ‘The Albatross’. Will you ever pick it back up and finish writing this draft? Does it count as a draft when it’s not complete? What does the word ‘draft’ even mean? What do words mean? Are you a figment of your own imagination?
The Zero Draft :: It might be a mess, but at least it’s done, and isn’t that the most important thing? A little elbow grease and it’ll be a full-fledged first draft in no time!
The Add-It-In-Later Draft :: It’s a good first draft, but you know there’s something missing. You’re going to need at least one more pass to add in more description or more dialogue, but it’s a great start.
The Something’s Wrong Draft :: You didn’t realize until it was too late, but this story would be much better if you did it in third-person perspective instead of first. Or maybe you started writing a horror story and realized it’d work better as a comedy. Or maybe you made the wrong person the main character. How much effort will it take to get this story on the right path? Hopefully not as much as it took to write in the first place.
The Trim-It-Later Draft :: Wow, you wrote a LOT of words, and you’re pretty certain that you don’t need all of them. Time to get out your metaphorical scissors and start cutting.
The Surprisingly Good Draft :: You weren’t sure how it was going to end up, but you know what, this draft is pretty dang good. Heck, it’s outright great. It doesn’t need as much work as you thought it would. Go you!
The Burn it Now Draft :: Your first instinct may be to cleanse it with fire and purify the ashes with salt, but hold onto it and tuck it away somewhere safe. Someday in the future it may provide the bones for another story. Or one heck of a laugh.
The Perfect Draft :: First time’s the charm, baby! [Note: I’ve heard that this kind of draft exists, but while I’ve witnessed every other draft on this list, this one still escapes me.]
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