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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/41255
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Most first drafts are too long, and improvement usually involves removing a lot; and yet many beginning writers think they should make their story even longer. But suppose you've not made a mistake. If a story has the potential to benefit from a longer draft, I think it needs to be done from scratch, not by adding words to what you already have. In other words, regard the existing version as a very, very long plot outline, or as part of one. (Read "plot" as shorthand; characterisation, setting etc. can benefit from plans too.)

If a hard drive failure meant you had to write the whole story again, remembering roughly what happened before and what worked well, you'd probably think, "Oh, and while I'm writing it all over again I may as well flesh out X". Such considerations are why I say the current version is _part_ of an outline.

But as I wrote before [here](https://writing.stackexchange.com/a/35877/22216), a second draft can also be longer despite, or even because of, _fewer_ moving parts, with what remains being better able to grow to its rightful size. So even if a second rewrite results in a longer work, I can't say now _why_ it did so. Nor, for that matter, can I say whether the length increase is prudent. I'm leaving that judgement to you.

Original score: 3