Repeat after me. The first draft doesn’t have to be good, it just has to get done. The first draft doesn’t have to get good, it just has to be done. The first draft doesn’t have to be good, it just has to get done.
Yesterday, on Absolute Write, someone posted a concern that the first draft of their novel was taking too long to write. From reading their post it appeared, to me at least, that part of their problem was that they were editing as they went along.
This person was also concerned that other writers produce first drafts that are 150K+ and are pared down through editing, while it doesn’t happen for them. You know what? It doesn’t happen for me either.
The first draft of my first novel was about 33K, a third of what it should be. I thought the story was complete, but afterwards I wasn’t so sure. It’s been languishing for a couple of years now and I think that I’m going to use that first draft as an outline and start from scratch.
Everyone writes at their own speed and in their own style. What works for one writer may not necessarily work for another. Maybe this guy should do less worrying and more writing.
Maybe I should do less blogging and more writing. :-)
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