How to Kick-Start Your First Draft
Photo by Jan Vasek @ Pixabay
‘I have an idea for a film, a book, a play’…
‘Great! When do you start writing your first draft?’
Silence…
Usually followed by:
‘Ah, it’s a complex story, I need to do more research’
or
‘Yes when I quit (fill the blank) smoking, drinking, my job, my wife….
or
‘You don’t get it! This project is bigger than me!’
Oh yes, I get it.
It has a name: Procrastination which is a good friend of Fear.
Days, weeks, months, even years could go by, without writing a line on your big idea. It’s not nice.
In addition, you feel guilty about it. It’s not nice either.
So what shall we do about it?
1. Brainstorm Ideas
Firstly we brainstorm ideas. This is my favorite phase of creation.
I bubble some ideas, some characters, plots, locations. I also do some research, I read books on the topic. I watch films on the subject, I write notes in my journal. Even more efficient, I tear pictures from magazines to make a collage of my next project. It’s a messy job but it’s soooo good.
This the time when you’re allowed to be CRAZY, to have FUN, to HAVE A BLAST with your brain and your creativity.
‘To live a creative life, we must lose our fear to be wrong.’ Joseph Chilton Pearce
Don’t take months to do this phase though. One month is enough.
I can hear you from here saying: ‘But what if you haven’t finished my research?’
No worries. Move on to the next stage AND continue researching.
Don’t give all your time to research because then it becomes procrastination.
2. Organize Your Ideas and Notes
Secondly, you organize your ideas.
That’s when you discover how bonkers you are and how creative more importantly.
What you need to do is to go through all your notes and decide what to keep and what to trash. Please trust the process, it’s all good.
It’s also a good idea to organize the ideas that you want to keep so it’s easier to find them while you’re writing.
Give yourself a week or two to do so.
3. Structure Your Notes
Thirdly, you find the spine of your ideas. From there, as an architect, you’re going to build a solid foundation. It’s the structure. In other words, you articulate clearly what you want to say and how you want to say it. It’s storytelling.
You need to tell the story in a way that keeps everyone engaged that’s what the structure is for. It’s heavy work.
I invite you to divide your work into small pieces. First, build up your main structure, then your scene by scene. For each one, evaluate how long it will take you to write it.
I give myself a week or two to do so.
4. Write
As I’m a lazy writer, I have small achievable targets. If they are too big, I get overwhelmed.
Some people like setting targets in terms of word count (500 words to 2000 words a day). Personally, I set my targets in terms of time I have available to write. I don’t bother with how many words I put on the page, as long as I write something.
How do I kick-start each writing session? I tell myself: ‘Let’s write for five minutes’.
Five minutes is not scary, right? So I go for it.
Consequently, I never write for five minutes. It’s always between 30 minutes and two hours. However, if I had said to myself ‘let’s write for half an hour’, I would have scared myself too much and find excuses not to write.
So put some music on, create a space for your creativity and just write.
Studies have shown that writing reduces stress faster than walking. So take it as a relaxing time for yourself.
A deadline of 2-4 months to write your first draft seems reasonable.
Please don’t expect to be brilliant on your first draft. It won’t be.
Hemingway said: ‘The first draft of anything is shit.’
That’s a good reason not to worry about it. You can relax your shoulders and enjoy the process. Have a blast!
‘The need to produce a great work of art makes it hard to produce any art at all.’ Julia Cameron
I find it reassuring actually. It allows you to be bad writer and to make mistakes. It’s easier to write a bad prose than good one. Aim for excellence at the re-writes. And that’s another story…
Good luck!
