Things not to worry about when writing your first draft of your book
Writing a first draft can be very overwhelming for a lot of people and trust me, I get it (I currently have a wip waiting for me to work on it but guess what I'm doing). It can feel very hard and there are a lot of things that you tend to worry about. Most of them, however, are things you're not even supposed to be worrying about! Here are some tips about what to not worry about when writing your first draft!
1. Whether your writing is good or not
This is a common one a lot of people tend to worry about when writing your first draft and let me tell you, you're not supposed to be worrying about this when writing your first draft! The purpose of writing your first draft isn't supposed to be the next Ernest Hemingway or steal William Shakespeare's throne as the King of Writing or some shit, it's supposed to be done so you actually have a story you can make better!
Please note that worrying about the writing is supposed to be done during the editing process. That's when you add or delete scenes/paragraphs/sentences/words and improve on the story you already have. You can worry about it then. Not now. Your first draft is not supposed to be perfect. It doesn't even have to be good! It has to be COMPLETE. So just finish the damn thing already!
2. Publishing
Sorry to burst your bubble of fantasies and fanciful dreams but don't worry or even try and fantasize about publishing when you're still taking your baby steps when writing a book. Publishing has a lot of stuff going on like copyright, cover design, blurb writing, foreword and preface, dedication page, acknowledgements page and a lot of other stuff! You don't need to worry about publishing your book if your book isn't even ready to be published in the first place!
Writing takes time. Lots of it. By daydreaming about publishing by one of the Big 5, or getting your book adapted into a film/TV show/series etc. you are wasting your time that you could be using to write your book. So get to it then!
3. Following an exact outline
An outline does actually help when writing a book and it can help when you don't know what to write next. Just don't worry about following it exactly. Things change. Maybe the character you aimed to be the villain turned out to be the good guy (totally didn't happen for me). Maybe two characters who were supposed to despise each other turned out to have a wonderful friendship. Maybe a character who was supposed to be the love interest turned out to have villainous qualities you didn't expect. Don't be afraid. Chances are, the plot/character you weren't planning was better than the one you did! Don't worry about following an exact outline because it will add some stress and can leave you frustrated.
Well, that's it! I hope you liked this post! Thank you so much for over 100 followers! Love you all! If you're interested, follow my Instagram, @silvia.hemmings!












