The First Draft: Let It Flow - article

Writing is an extremely exciting process, but it can also be quite terrifying. One of the things that I’ve found helpful is to make that process seem more like an adventure than an adversarial process. We don’t have to be accurate when we’re creating. We have to let something flow out of us. I sometimes call the first draft the Lewis and Clark draft—any way that you can get to that coast is the right way. There is no wrong way to explore something you’ve never encountered before. If you’re doing something new and different, then by definition no one can tell you how it’s done. So anyone who tells you that you must do this by a certain page and that by a certain page—ignore them. Just go out there and see what kind of fun you can have. Once you get to the ocean, the important thing is celebrate. Have a party in your head. Relax, take a little bit of a breath, and then look at this work as something you’ve explored and discovered and see what it tells you. You’ll find that you’ve told yourself things you weren’t aware of when you were writing. The next draft is when you put the freeway through—now you can see where you’ve been, so you can choose how to get there again and figure out what sign posts you need in order to take people along with you.

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