When you write a first draft, you write it for yourself. When you rewrite it, you write it for everyone else. Stephen King
“It's easier to look at something bad then intuit how to make it better, than to make something good out of thin air. The human brain isn't wired for spontaneous ingenuity.” Julian Shapiro
The thrill of writing is that something that didn’t exist will be produced because of you. The beauty created starts with an ugly, first, rough draft.
Are you a visual processor? I am. I need to have the words and phrases in front of me to imagine how they fit together. Seeing them helps me determine which ones are keepers and which ones are throwaways. And which ones look like perfect matches.
The journey of 1,000 miles begins with the first step and a first draft is a responsible step towards completing a writing journey.
1. The drafting process shouldn’t take long.
The idea is to put down and organize your ideas from start to finish. Good ideas. Garbage ideas. Write freely.
2. Write in order to think.
A first draft is a sacred space for generating ideas. Because it's while writing that you discover your best insights. You write in order to give yourself permission to think.
When you write a draft you splash your ideas on a blank canvass. Squeeze every last thought from your brain. My drafts don’t always turn out exactly as I imagined them in my head. But once the words are put to paper, I get a vague idea of what I’m looking for in my final piece.
3. Draft with a deadline.
The drafting process needs time. A first draft implies a second. And probably a third or fourth. Give yourself more than a day to complete the process. Just like yeast causes dough to rise, letting your words sit will allow their potential to rise.
To finish well you can’t wait till the last minute to start. Set a draft deadline at least 24 hours before you need the finished product.
If you need inspiration for this practise, Wendy MacDonald shared good insights about deadlines and Gloria Guest wrote about crunch time.
4. Embrace the badness.
Mozart had 600 musical compositions. Edison had 1093 patents. Only a few are remembered today. That's the point.
Edit AFTER you draft. When you’re writing a draft, perfectionism is not your friend.
Letting go of perfectionism is one of the most important things a writer can do at the start of any project. Keep in mind, a draft is nothing more than your initial ideas and emotions. Perfect spelling and sentence structure aren’t necessary in a draft. Don’t worry about being repetitive or boring.
Nobody but you will ever see your draft or judge it. Don’t even think of showing it to anyone.
If you try to perfect your work at this stage, you shut the creative side of your brain down and dam the flow of ideas. Ready. Fire. Aim.
5. Good enough.
Good enough is good enough for a draft. Everything can be fine-tuned later. So, as you write, remind yourself, “This is good enough.” Keep going. Get your thoughts down. That’s success.
6. Choose challenge over competence.
Do you feel like you know nothing when you begin a challenging writing project? You take a risk and tackle a subject you’re not familiar with. Looking at the first draft is humbling. But that’s OK. As Eleanor Roosevelt said,
You have no security unless you can live bravely, excitingly, imaginatively; unless you can choose a challenge instead of competence.
This post is typical of everything I write. My first draft looks very little like what you just read. The ideas splashed in the Word document were about the pain that arises when you sit too long in a drafty room. The writing process can be a pain in the neck if you sit too long editing as you write.
How about you? Is D for Drafts in your world?
