writing drafts

Book In A Year Series, Month 7: The Power Of A Rewrite, The Once Over

So, you did it.

You did a thing!

You completed a draft of some thing that only existed in your head. Now, you have to go through the process of (gasp!) EDITING.

I know, I know. This sounds scary, it sounds intimidating, but this is good thing! Since you have committed to finishing this work, you can either change, put in, or expand. But for this portion, this is what I call The Once Over.

During The Once Over, you just do two thing: celebrate and step away. You take the time to celebrate and enjoy the fact that you wrote something. That you–yes, YOU–wrote something. Before making any changes to a work, celebrate that you wrote it first!

Next week? We get to the ADD IN’s.

BOOK IN A YEAR SERIES-MONTH 6: The Power Of A Draft

“It doesn’t have to be perfect. It just has to be written.” -JBHarris

What I think is so disheartening about the writing process is that it can feel so daunting! What you have in your head and what may come out of it doesn’t always look the most polished, sane or pretty.

But that is the point of a rough draft–it’s rough! It’s not meant to be clean. It is meant to be written. Think of it as going through a forest with a machete. Your job is to cut a path. And keep cutting the path towards the other side of the forest–by any means necessary.

Remember that the most crucial thing is to get what you have what is in your head out of it.

No more. No less.

The most important thing about a draft is that once it is written–it can be changed! It can be lengthened, shortened and made a series with the right motivations. In essence, this is the poignant thing to remember when beginning a draft–fiction or non-fiction!

I know it’s messy. I know it is scary. I know it feels impossible, soul-crushing and challenges your imagination–but write anyway. The next step is the revision. This is where Neil Gaiman says where you look like you knew what you were doing the whole time.

The Hard Work

There is a saying among writers when it comes to first drafts: they are all crap. No matter how gifted the writer, all first drafts are crap.

Don’t debate me, just listen.

However, I love what Nora Roberts says about blank pages and drafts:

“You can’t edit an empty page.”

This is from the same Nora Roberts who has written 200 books. Two. Hundred. That’s a level of prolific that is unmatched. But it’s true–no one can read the stories in your head, dear one.

The advice I can give for writing first drafts is the same as was told to me: write. No matter how it looks or sounds, get it out of you. Write it down. The way you become a better writer, to develop the muscles they make writers prolific only come by writing!

Write! Write! Write!

The thing that helps me to try and be prolific is to give myself a deadline. That helps to focus research, and allows time to gather thoughts (or confidence) to write. The major hitch to keeping you from writing is more often than not is confidence or time.

Writers are and can be master procrastinators especially when we don’t think we can or should try to write. Fight the urge to ignore the need to write.

Fight it!

The benefit of doing the hard work is the sweeter part of adding to your draft, watching the story expand and change. Don’t allow the fear of how something will sound or look to stop the joy from coming.

Get to work.

Jennifer P. Harris

Founder, SG Writing Services

[Image from Google]