November 1 First First Draft Advice

A new-to-fiction writing friend asked my advice on first drafting. I kind of said, "Uhhh." Then I deleted that (I'm pretty sure I deleted it?) and typed something resembling helpful. I hope.

The truth is, when I wrote my first draft of my first book, I didn't mean to seek publication. I didn't know what I wanted outside of myself, but I knew inside of myself, I had to write. Because I didn't have dreams of world domination yet, I went at it in a highly experimental, even slipshod fashion. I diaried about my characters and plot before I began the book, and a few other times throughout. Every time I began a writing session - back then I wrote at Panera with a pen - I made a bullet point list of what I wanted to happen. I also made a longer list at the beginning of each chapter. Then I went through, scene by scene, and wrote.

I wish I hadn't wasted the time hand-writing two novels, and I wish I hadn't wasted time by not having a working understanding of structure before I began. On the other hand, if I had worried too much about writing the "right way", I might not have started writing. So, for me, the most important part of writing has always been what it still is: Just Do It.

I'm not sure I got around to telling my friend, but S, if you're reading, here's my best advice. When writing your first draft, make sure you keep writing. If you get stuck, get information that will help, then go back to writing. Don't let anything stop you. Don't let hardware, software, worries about your reputation or your influence, not having as much time as you'd like, not knowing a lot of big words*, realizing halfway that your writing is terrible, being scared by what's coming out of you, not having brilliant ideas, having too many brilliant ideas, not having read On Writing, your plant dying because you forgot to water it, not having read enough classics, not having read the bestsellers in your genre, being unsure of your genre, not being completely rested, not having the right music, that creeping feeling in your thighs, being behind on word count, being ahead on wordcount, being out of cookies, or any other thing stop you from writing. Do whatever you need to do to keep learning, but make sure you are writing as you do so.

And enjoy your NaNoWriMo.

*I know you know a lot of big words.