Hello and happy Friday everyone!
It’s finally happened everyone. My book, Reaper, is finally finished. It isn’t completed, there’s still plenty of editing to be dealt with but that damned first draft is finally done. Now that I’ve finally taken the next step in my journey I have a few tips I would like to share with all of you, things I wish I had known before reaching the end of the first challenge.
So without further ado here is my first draft survival list!
First Drafts Are Supposed to Suck
First and foremost we need to address the elephant in the room. FIRST DRAFTS ARE SUPPOSED TO SUCK. For years I prolonged my writing by trying to make every little thing perfect but once I gave myself permission to just let loose my book got finished. I know as writers the thought of mistakes is blasphemy but if you’re sitting there editing a paragraph you just wrote instead of writing the next one then your gem of a book will never get finished.
Now in order for me to do something like this I had to constantly remind myself of two quotes.
The first is “The first draft is just you telling yourself the story” by Terry Pratchett. This always resonated with me because it just made so much sense. You don’t HAVE to let anyone read the first draft, you can of course but if you feel so self-conscious about it then just let the first draft be for your eyes only. The very first version of Reaper is complete garbage that I wrote when I was eighteen. Absolutely no one is allowed to read it but I keep it around to show myself both how far my story has come and how much I have grown and changed as a writer. It’s especially useful on rough days.
The second quote is “You can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page” by Jodi Picoult. This quote in particular helped me stay on track and not edit as I go. It wasn’t easy but it paid off in the end.
Both these quotes helped me keep in mind that no first draft is perfect. A first draft is meant to be the sketch of what you want you book to look like, not the final product.
Don’t Be Afraid to Change Things
Reaper went through FOUR different outlines and first chapters before I finally landed on the one that just worked. I went years trying to work two books into one without even realizing. The first three outlines of Reaper went that way, then one night while trying to rework my outline yet again my husband suggested I split the book into two. From that day on things have just fallen into place.
Once I finally had the outline that I knew was the oneI started writing. It was during this process that I found out that no matter how well your outline flows things will change. As writers we often refer to this as our characters not cooperating. In my case my MC veered off course in the slightest to add more meat to the story. This happened because the story begun unfolding as I was writing it, opening a door to even more possibilities to which I simply went back and re-worked my outline to fit these new ideas.
For some writers it isn’t as easy as that and that’s okay as well. Even though we control our characters they still seem to have a mind of their own. Usually if you hit a point where your characters just won’t do what you need them to, it’s typically a good idea to go back and take a look at your outline. Sometimes things just happen in our stories that we weren’t expecting but it isn’t the end of all things good.
In whichever case you shouldn’t be afraid to make some changes to your original idea if the situation calls for it.
Your Feelings Towards Your WIP Are Normal
You’re supposed to have that love/hate relationship with your WIP and/or characters. Things don’t always go as planned. Some days are harder than others. Your story isn’t lacking because you have negative feelings for it at times. You can’t have butterflies for your story one hundred percent of the time, otherwise it wouldn’t be true love.
Don’t Rush
Ever hear the saying “Rome wasn’t built in a day”? That applies to your book as well. You can do a lot of things with your story but you can’t rush it. A great story takes time to perfect. We’ve all heard tales of those authors who can pump out a book in three months but let’s be real here, for most of us that just isn’t realistic and that’s perfectly fine.
Go at your pace and your book will be finished in no time at all.
You CAN Do This
Writing a book is hard. You’re going to come across a lot of people who want to put you down., there’s no need for you to help them. Remember that nothing worth having comes easy. Try not to put too much pressure on yourself.
You’re doing a great job, just keep at it and you’ll reach your goal before you know it!
These may be things you’ve heard of before but a little reminding never hurts. We all have to be reminded every now and then that we’re not on this journey by ourselves. Now let’s all get back to work!
Until next week!
Happy reading and writing to all and to all a good day!!
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