writing your first draft | Lucy Mitchell Author Blog

Here’s a secret about writing first drafts which I have discovered – you can fill your first draft with plot holes, a saggy storyline, typos, bad grammar and dull chapters and then…HAND it OVER to the future you.

That’s right – you can grab your first draft with all its writing issues and hand it over to the future you. No need to worry about what you have produced.

All you do is you shove your first draft in an electronic folder or a phsyical drawer and walk away. There’s no need to burn it, bury it in the back garden or hide it away under your bed.

The future you will one day come up with a way of fixing that major plot hole. They will know what to do with those troublesome characters and they will come up with a much better ending. The future you will do big things with that first draft you have been struggling with and what’s great is they will thank you for giving them something to work with.

Sometimes we just need to get things down on paper, so that in the future we will have something to mould, sculpt and shape.

We put so much pressure on ourselves to make our stories work right now and if they don’t work today, we quickly shelve them.

We forget that in the future we might be better equipped to tackle our novel writing issues.

As soon as you start delegating crappy first drafts to the future writer version of yourself you will experience a new kind of writer joy. You will feel comforted that the future you will sort out your mess of a story.

This joy you will feel will put a twinkle in your eye and skip in your step. That first draft is not your problem anymore. Let me say that again – it’s not your problem!

Don’t despair if the sight of your first draft novel makes you cry. The future you will be ready and waiting to correct that pile of literary wrongs.

Things can get so bad when you are writing your first draft. Your finger will gravitate towards the ‘delete’ button and everyday you will contemplate starting again with the story. In this situation, I ask you to stop for a moment and consider this:

Your future self will not thank you for giving up like this. They will have nothing to work with.
How do you know your future self won’t do amazing things with this story?

So, here’s what you do.

Finish difficult first draft, add post it note to the front and scribble, ‘Dear Future Me, here’s a little something I made earlier for you, enjoy xxx’

Stick in folder, smile and skip away. The future you will sort that out later. Doesn’t this feel amazing?

Look at the future you as an extra writing resource!

Thinking like this has changed my entire outlook on writing. Sigh.

I do hope the future me is ready for work!

Keep writing and smiling x

Hey, welcome to my blog.

Well, I think I have really lost my writer marbles this time. Who would write 2 first drafts at the same time? Surely writing 1 first draft is enough pain and struggle?

That’s what I initially thought when my brain suggested this bizarre approach. The words, ‘no way!’ shot out of my mouth…as I sat on a busy train to London. The poor sleeping stranger next to me woke up with a jolt. I was forced to apologise to them, turn back to the train window and curse my writer brain for sending me ridiculous writing ideas.

After a hectic day in the office, a tasty burger at the station, a wander around the book shop and a sweaty sprint for the train as I’d got my timings wrong, I found myself sitting on a return train home considering my writer brain’s ridiculous and silly idea.

Here are my writer brain’s thoughts on this ridiculous idea:

Writing a first draft is simply a process which you go through to get the story out of your head and onto a Word document or a notebook. You are shovelling sand, a few old rocks and some pebbles into a cardboard box. Nothing else.

I don’t intend to edit and revise them at the same time. That process needs focus and concentration. I will do that one at a time.

The first draft will give me the rough material I need to start shaping and sculpturing the book. Without this material I just have a two page novel plan and a load of futile daydreams of me clutching a future bestseller.

My feelings towards my first drafts blow hot and cold. One day I am gushing with love at the thought of them and the next I am digging a hole in the garden to bury them. With two first drafts I could alternate between the two. When one feels like a pile oif literary wrongs I will just work on the other.

I have started writing my two first drafts. Here’s how things are going?

I prefer one story to the other at 10k words. I am still working on both but I have my ‘favourite’ draft child already. I wonder whether that will change? For noting – draft B is my favourite.

There is less stress with seeing them as cardboard boxes filled with sand and pebbles. They are simply containers. That’s it.

It’s nice to have something to fall back on when the words dry up on one.

Let me know your thoughts and let me know if there are any draft A fans out there because it’s starting to dislike it’s draft B sibling 🤣

Enjoy your day ❤️