How Bad is a First Draft?

 It's the first draft. It is supposed to be garbage.Utter and complete garbage.

I don't think many people realize how bad a first draft truly is. I think it's considered to be "almost done except for typos lol."

No. It's trash. It's the merest sketch of the final shape of your story. It is the discovery draft where you uncover details about your characters you didn’t know, where new plot avenues open up where before was dead ends. It is the vomit draft, barf draft, shitty draft. It is where you set aside all the knowledge about style, pacing, grammar, and spelling and let it flow. Hand-write it if you can, or even type on an analog device. Pry up your backspace key and turn off the spellcheck. Words on the page are all that matter here, even if those words are "I hate this story and all the people in it." Write those, explain how you hate them, how you would torture them if they were real. Let them defend themselves against your wrath.

Now is not the time to edit. 

If you hate first person, switch now. Lie to yourself and flip to third and pretend it was that way all along. Later, after you are done the rewrite begins, and that's where you fix voice, pacing, and details. After the draft is written and cooled in a drawer and all the stink has dissipated can you look at it with your detached eye and see the problems. You're too close right now. Back away.

Right now: finish. Overlook all the shortcomings. Move forward only. No regrets, no rules.

FINISH. 

Don't be afraid to write real trash. Your "edit brain" will get its turn. In the first draft, you're just scribbling and that's OK.

🧩🦏 

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