How to Write a First Draft Without Perfectionism by illuminara, literature
Literature
How to Write a First Draft Without Perfectionism
Maybe you’ve heard that first drafts are supposed to suck, but what does that really mean? What does a sucky first draft look like? How do you allow yourself to suck? Why would you even want to allow yourself to write something that sucks in the first place?
Because otherwise, you’ll most likely be crippled by the writer’s arch nemesis: perfectionism.
Did you just cringe? We all experience it when we sit down to write, arrange everything just so, type a sentence or two (or a bit more if you’re lucky), and then it strikes—your inner editor. It smacks you across the face and demands that you fix that grammar mist
The Lifecycle of a Novel Draft by illuminara, literature
Literature
The Lifecycle of a Novel Draft
This article’s aim is to teach you how to draft a novel. That’s a pretty vague statement and begs a lot of questions. What’s a draft? What work or planning do you have to do before you start drafting? Can you just sit down and start putting pen to paper and expect a draft to miraculously show up? How many drafts do you need to write in order to get a “finished” novel?
First and foremost, a draft is simply a version of a manuscript, and there will be many versions along the way to a finish novel ready for publication (or whatever other plans you have for it). The purpose of a first draft is to bring your story ki