D is for Dare to Draft

D is for Dare to Draft

You might classify me as a perfectionist when trying to write my novel, which sounds potentially good, as then the story would turn out amazing! But put bluntly, it's not.

Sometimes I feel fearful of starting that first draft. I become become afraid of imperfection. I am terrified of finishing, feeling successful, but hating my story. Or maybe I adore it, but it others don't think it has the potential that I see in it. This has happened. And this will continue to happen. 

And that's okay. A draft is a draft. It's meant for mess-ups and terrible writing peppered with cliches. It's supposed to have plot holes and way too many adverbs. Anne Lamott calls it in her book Bird by Bird, a "shitty first draft." You need the "shit" because without it you'll never be able to find it's true beauty.

Tweet