The First Draft

“You don’t have to be great to get started, but you have to get started to be great.” - Les Brown

This quote is probably the most important thing to remember as a writer.

I feel like we all struggle with the dance between “Is my writing good enough?”, “This scene sounds terrible”, and "This is actually pretty decent"—although we honestly don't say the latter enough. I think you’ll agree with me that you are your biggest critic.

As a writer, your job is to write what cannot be written. When someone is asked to describe something and they respond that they just can’t find the words for it, it’s your job to do that—find the words. We write what can’t be put into words.

It’s a hard job.

If anyone says that a writer’s job is easy, fun, carefree, or something someone one who doesn’t do stress well should do, they have clearly never written a book.

Writing is a very up and down thing.

As a writer, you have your highs and you have your lows. Sometimes writing picks you up like a leaf in a fall breeze, and other times it drops you down as if off the side of the Grand Canyon.

You have characters literally living in your head—plots and storylines that only exist in your mind.

You’re literally creating a world with your fingertips, writing a place for readers to explore.

That comes with stress, writer’s block, difficulty, and problems. It’s not an easy or simple thing at all.

The hardest part of being a writer is writing.

Yep.

I said it.

It doesn’t matter what you’re writing.

Writing is the hardest part.

Especially the first draft.

The first draft is the base of your story. It’s the bare bones. It’s the very first time your story sees the light of day.

You can’t have a book without a first draft.

Unfortunately, all too often, we are so consumed with perfecting our writing, that we get stuck with writing the first draft.

But really, the first draft has no needs.

All a first draft has to do is exist.

"Everybody's first draft is perfect, because all a first draft has to do is exist." - Jane Smiley

Your first draft can be terrible. Really. A first draft is not the book you are going to be publishing. It will undergo lots of editing before you get to that point.

This is the most important thing to remember.

It doesn’t have to be anything. It can have a million mistakes and that will be perfect for a first draft.

All it has to do is exist. You have to start somewhere and that is where you start.

If you’re struggling while writing your first draft, just remember, you can’t have a book without a first draft. This is only your beginning point.

If you’re following a recipe, you don’t skip adding all your ingredients to your bowl. You can't bake it if there's nothing to bake. You can't get to point B without getting through point A.

Just like you don’t skip putting your ingredients together, you don’t skip the first draft. It’s when you put all the unique ideas and quirky characters from your imagination together to create a story.

You can’t edit a blank page.

A first draft is something that you edit. You read it again and again to perfect each scene before you are done. You might even rewrite some chapters.

But to do that, you have to write it.

If you don’t write it, you can’t edit it. And if you can’t edit it, you won’t have a story. Just like you can't bake if there's nothing to bake, you can't edit if there's nothing to edit.

Even if your writing is terrible, you have to write anyway.

That’s a writer’s job. We write even when it’s not our best.

You can’t edit a blank page. Remember that whenever you’re feeling down about writing.

Trash writing is a-okay.

Do you ever write and literally feel like you are writing trash? Like what you're writing is the worst possible version of itself at that moment?

You know what?

That’s great!

That means you’ve written something.

It doesn’t matter that it’s not the best. It’s something. And if it’s your first draft, that is exactly what a first draft needs to be.

If you’re writing a scene and you really don’t like what your writing, you feel like it’s trash, that’s okay.

Feel free to label it “trash” or “worst version” or even “EDIT THIS”.

Or if you just can’t write a scene, you can do something like this.

I was struggling with a scene and didn’t really want to lose my writing momentum by trying to figure out how to write it. So, I wrote a short paragraph of what I wanted to happen in the scene and then put asterisks on either side of it to separate it from my story.

It could look similar to:

*Main character [does something] and [something happens after] and then [they do something else that leads to where they are now]*

Basically, it looks a bit like how I’d write an outline for a chapter, only it’s just a section of a chapter that I really don’t want to write at the current moment. And then I’d go on and write the rest of the chapter.

I actually just did this with a book I was writing where there was a big action scene that I wasn't sure sure how to write. After I figured the scene out, I took out that section and wrote the scene. It was a way that made it so I didn't lose my writing "mojo" but was able to delay writing a section I wasn't ready to pen yet.

If you do this, you can fill in the writing of that act later like I did when you have a better idea of what’s going on, or when you’re editing your first draft. It can help a lot in avoiding writer’s block.

There is nothing your first draft needs to be. All it has to do is exist. It might be terrible, it might be the worst writing you’ve ever written, but it’s still perfect. There are no requirements for it except for existing.

It can always be edited. In fact, that’s the whole purpose of a first draft.

But to be edited, it has to exist. So if you don’t want to write because you feel like your writing’s not good, write anyway.

You might even look back on it and realize it’s actually pretty good writing.

It's happened to me before.

You don’t need to stress about how good your writing is for the first draft. You will have time to edit it. Just remember that you have to start somewhere.

The first draft is your starting point.

I hope you found this helpful! If you have any questions contact me in the bar below.

As always, happy writing!

-Jocelyn