As writers, we know that the first draft of our work won’t be…the best. Characters aren’t fleshed out. Plot hole are large and in charge. Spelling and grammar have taken the day off. But as an impatient, perfectionist picture book writer, I wanted everything I wrote to be publication-worthy on my first try. Since that’s impossible, I found myself putting off first drafts for as long as possible.
Then I heard other authors talk about accepting the first draft for exactly what we know it is: terrible. Instead of fearing the flaws of the first draft, embrace them! I was skeptical but desperate, and gave it a try.
And oh my gosh did this one small attitude adjustment change everything! Here’s why embracing the terrible first draft can be such a game changer:
IT SETS YOU FREE
Write the phrase “terrible first draft” at the top of page. You have now given yourself permission to not take this too seriously. Anything that follows is by definition, terrible, so the stakes are very, very low. Just play!
IT’S EASY
Because the goal is just to get words down, you can do what I call “unplugging your brain.” Don’t overthink anything…or even think at all! Sit down, put pen to paper and let the words flow. Is the writing terrible? Good job!
IT’S FUN
Since writing is something we like to do, it should (occasionally) be fun. But there’s no joy in beating ourselves up for failing to get every word right. With the terrible first draft, you can throw anything you struggle with (Grammar? Dialog? Pacing?) to the side and just focus on the parts of storytelling you love best.
Plus, because the draft is supposed to be terrible, you can make it terrible! Write “She does something then IDK, but it’s funny and the bunny show ups and says “Weeeee!”, and declare yourself a success.
IT LEADS TO AMAZING DISCOVERIES
Once you are in the mind set of writing something terrible, your inner critic—who loves to point out that your writing is terrible— has no legs to stand on. Shedding that deadweight frees you up to explore any POV, tense, random character that shows up to be funny, or whatever. Once you get into the “anything goes” mind set, amazing thing start to happen. Suddenly your third person, past tense book about a bee is now a second person, present tense book about a clueless beekeeper. To me, that’s magic.
IT SAVES TIME
Embracing the terrible first draft cuts way into the fear-of-writing-your-first-draft-because-it will-be-terrible time. Because, well, it will be terrible! And for my fellow hardcore plotsers, the terrible first draft cuts down on our laborious pre-planning efforts, because the story already has shape.
Plus, once you’ve spent time living in your story—even in this terrible form—it’s much easier to tell if the tale has legs. Sometimes the terrible first draft will be the only draft of a story to ever see the light of day. But other times? It’s just the beginning. Albeit a terrible one.
Once I incorporated the terrible first draft into my writing life, I lost the fear, rediscovered the fun, and wrote better stories. And that’s not too terrible!
