You Only Get to Write Your First Draft Once
Good morning writers! Sorry to have missed you last week. The hours got away from me and before I knew it I was lying in bed on Sunday night wondering if I had ever written that Substack post (which as you know, I did not). But, I did get some writing done on my work in progress, and crossed the 85,000 word mark. Which is probably why the Substack post didn’t happen. I’m so close to the end that all I want to do is work on my second book and get that first draft done!
I know it’s a privilege to be able to put off other things and make the time to write, but I also think it was a good lesson in taking stock of the expectations we put on ourselves vs what is really necessary, and prioritizing accordingly.
When I set out to write this Substack late last year, I knew I wanted it to be a full year of weekly posts. The goal was easier to meet in the beginning. Dividing up my plotting process into bite-sized weekly lessons gave me a plan to follow, and I was between deadlines on my debut, All We Have is Time. But now?
I’ve never published a book before, so everything I’ve been working on behind the scenes is brand new, and balancing my time has been a learning curve. I know, “you can’t plan for what you don’t know” is obvious. The blocks I’ve set aside for drafting book 2 have been usurped by other writing that is more pressing, so I’m still writing, just not the writing my heart wants to do.
On top of that, it’s hard for me to switch gears and focus on writing more than one thing in a day. If I’m writing essays, I can’t jump to fiction. It’s like a writing hangover. Don’t get me wrong, I want to do these extra writing things that aren’t my new book’s first draft. I want to give my debut the best shot I can. But I don’t think I’ve had a routine week in months! It’s all very exciting, but it can be stressful, too.
When I get stressed I like to walk and listen to music for an hour. Then, when I get home, I like to do something low-stakes, with no obligations attached. Sometimes it’s cooking dinner, sometimes it’s knitting, sometimes it’s wasting half an hour watching stupid internet videos with my kids. Last week, it was my work in progress. Why? Because right now, it is low stakes. It’s all mine. No one else has read a word. No one’s bought it. No one’s reviewed it. It’s not work. It’s my own little world to play in, and it’s fun!
I know lots of people who say your first draft will be shit. To just write the words, get anything onto that blank page. And to a certain extent, I agree. Magic happens in revisions. But I had a bit of an epiphany working on the new book, a re-frame of that common sentiment. Maybe because we’re nearing the end of our writing year together and you are all going to have shiny new first drafts, maybe because my debut is about to land in the hands of lots of people who aren’t me, I wanted to savor the idea that my new WIP is, for the moment, all mine.
I know the whole point of this exercise was to finish our books in a year. And that is still the goal! It’s a wonderful sense of accomplishment to type “The End.” But pause. Take a breath. The first draft is such a unique part of the process, and I think we should recognize that there is something special about creating something from nothing. I have revised my debut novel too many times to count, and after you finish your draft, you will launch into countless revisions of your own.
But you only get to write your first draft once.
Yes, the blank page can be daunting, but it can also be pure discovery, even if you’re a plotter like me. It’s a joy to discover these people you’ve created out of thin air, to put them in situations and watch them react in ways that surprise even you. It’s the best time to experiment, to find the voice of your project that the next draft and the next will hone.
So, as we rush toward the ending of our first drafts, savor the rest of the time you have putting words on blank pages, creating worlds from nothing. Don’t look at is as “I have to get this done." Think of it as, “I get to write this story.”