A Perfect First Draft

I stopped chasing the perfect first draft a long time ago.

Like most writers, I started out wanting every line to be perfect. I'd polish paragraphs, tweak dialogue, and rework scenes before moving on. Eventually, I realized I was wasting my time because there was a good chance they wouldn't survive the edit.

I've learned that stories evolve. Characters deepen. What feels right in Chapter 1 often doesn't feel right after you've written Chapter 30.

When I start a novel, I usually have a solid idea of who my characters are. But it's not until I spend months living with them that I really get to know them.

By the time I reach the end of a story, I often find myself going back and changing actions, dialogue, motivations, and even how characters view the world.

Sometimes entire scenes disappear. Sometimes it's an entire chapter. I've learned not to get too attached to what's on the page because there's a good chance it won't look the same by the time the story is finished.

My goal for the first draft is to simply get the story out. Perfection can come later.

That's not to say everyone should work this way. I know writers who genuinely can't move forward until they're happy with what's on the page. If that's their process and it works, great. But I think a lot of newer writers put enormous pressure on themselves to produce a perfect first draft. When they can't, they get frustrated and start questioning whether they're capable of finishing a book.

A first draft doesn't need to be perfect. It just needs to exist. Get to the end. Stay open-minded. Give yourself permission to discover things along the way. There's a good chance the story will change. And that's okay. It's part of the process.

posted by Sandra L. Rostirolla on June, 17