Wannabecatwriter

I am totally somewhere in the "This is hard!" or "I don't know s***" zones right now (and it's where I stopped last time.) On this second go-around, I won't let it defeat me, though! Been reading little advice tidbits here and there that have been really, really helpful.

A few gems from a great discussion about the purpose of a draft that spoke to me:

Q. What makes you keep writing your first draft even though it's a complete mess?

I. Being a complete mess is the one and only job of the first draft. Proof of life. Keep going. It's like moving, which is the world's single worst activity. You box up every fucking thing in your head, and set it all out in your new space, and it's the worst day of your life when you do. And the satisfaction of moving all those boxes and finishing the laborious work is fleeting because now your new space looks like absolute garbage, and it will keep looking like a cluttered unlivable mess for months and you know it and you wonder why you even bothered moving. But you slowly unpack and organize and hang things on the wall until one day you're living in the home you always imagined.

II. Think of the mess as a puzzle that you get to have fun solving.

III. It's only a mess compared to other things you've read. But other things you've read are finished.

Stop comparing your work in progress to finished works.

It takes months or even years to finish most stories (excepting short stories and maybe novelettes). You're not going to get there on your first draft, or your second, or even your third. So, according to the words of Save the Cat! Writes a Novel, "Don't be afraid to write crap. Crap makes great fertilizer."

IV. Writing anything is an accomplishment. So many people think about, talk about, post about writing… and never do. (shush, I know I'm guilty of that at this moment!!)

Set a daily goal (words, pages, whatever). Hit it each day and take pride in JUST THAT accomplishment. It will get easier each day to reach that goal it as it becomes a habit rather than a chore.

Your story can't just exist in your head, it has to be given form. Writing it will gradually, eventually reveal what you can keep, what you must refine, and what you need to mercilessly cast away. If it's only in your head, it ALL exists, good, bad, and mediocre. Putting it in words starts the process of separating it from your mind and ego, and will start to give you some detachment and perspective for further drafts. It might start as a mewling little lump of words that drools and vomits and shits itself but by GOD you are going to raise… er, revise… that story into a fine figure of a tale.