First Draft Manifesto: Divorce Your Art From Perfectionism

A lot goes into writing a first draft. Thought, time, energy, and lots and lots of coffee. There are some basic principles, though, and this week here at Writer Off the Leash, I'll try to capture them all like little Pokemons, then compose them into a First Draft Manifesto.

Principle #1: Divorce Your Art From Perfectionism

Sometimes writers make things way too complicated. I do. When I sit down to write a new story, it takes me an hour or two to figure out that hey, I don't have to compose Shakespearean prose in iambic pentameter. I simply need to get the dang story down on paper. So, here's a good reminder for all of us:

Just write what you're thinking.

I know. Sounds too easy, right? Like I'm making up a fake truth to fool you so that your writing will fail, and then I'll swoop in with mine and make millions (cue evil laughter).

Nope. Nothing like that at all. Here's the deal . . .

When you put too much effort into finding just the right words to put together, your creativity gets bunched up, bogging you down. Sometimes even stopping you. That's bad, folks. Newsflash: you don't have to have the most psychedelic words strung out across the page like a hippie on acid. You only need to have words. Period. They don't have to be perfect. Not yet. That's what editing is for.

So go ahead and write like you think, not like how you think you should sound (click to tweet). At this point, you're merely getting the story wrangled onto paper. You can always go back later and sprinkle jazzy word glitter all over your paragraphs.