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craft, creative writing, first draft, life, skill, success, tips, work, writing
Right now, I’m supposed to be writing the first draft of a novel. It’s the same story I’ve been playing with for three years now, but there comes a time when you realise something is not quite right. When that happened, I sat myself down and said, ‘Something needs to change.’
So I changed it.
I’ve spent last week writing an outline for this novel. I’ve took old scenes and mixed them up, enhanced a few character back grounds and asking myself should I really do this? Should I take something that’s half formed and scrap it, all to start again?
Part of me said no, what’s the point?
The point I realised is this: I won’t learn any other way.
Writing is a difficult craft. Making something work when writing is even harder, especially if your inner critic thinks it can strut around and call the shots, its sometimes impossible.
I’m just over 5000 words into this first draft, and you’d think I’d know the world by now. But the truth is I don’t, I know it as well as I created it. But even then, new things turn up all the time. That’s part of the process, there will always be new ideas that will surprise you.
Another thing, I’ve realised I detest first drafts. It’s supposed to be the fun part of writing (apparently), but if I could hide from them I would.
My first drafts are ugly, real monstrous pieces of work. There’s not much detail to go on in my first drafts, and to be quite honest, I prefer it that way. The reason for this is my inner critic. We all have one. There is no denying that. My inner critic likes to contemplate every word chosen and what that word could possibly imply to my readers. If that sounds familiar, listen up, your inner critic is slowly killing you and your creativity. There, I said it.
The problem with inner critics that are this harsh means you’re harsh on yourself. You’re surrounded by books that have spent years in the making, and then changed and rewritten and reworked and edited. But the truth is, our work is not going to be top notch, NOT YET.
I repeat, NOT YET.
And that’s because we’re too focussed on being as good as those books that are published, and one day we will be. But for now, put your inner critic in a box and lock it up. Sure, entertain them while you write and make little notes to yourself, so you know you’re going to come back and fix things. But, shut them up. Because the only thing that will suffer is you. The piece you’re writing won’t suffer, it doesn’t know how to live just yet, but you do and you will turn yourself inside out to reach this kind of perfect you have in your head.
I’m doing it right now, which is why I’m distracting myself with this blog post. When it comes to first draft hell, get the piece finished and remember, you’re coming back to it later. It’s not going to be stranded and left looking like a shrivelled up rose. Nope, we’re going to finish planting it and then we’re going to nurture it. That’s how we get to perfect.
So my fellow writers, write on.