Publishing Series: #4 The First Draft

 As author Terry Pratchett says, "The first draft is just you telling yourself the story."

That was an absolute stress reliever and eye-opener for me.

When your outline is done, just start writing. At this point you don't need a fancy beginning or a tear-jerking ending. Don't worry too much about correct spellings, punctuation, or capitalization -- although fewer errors in these categories will save you time later. Don't worry about word count or length. Just tell yourself the story.

Push through. Sometimes, I must confess, I combine my first and second drafts, but more about the second draft later.

Don't necessarily even worry about dialog unless you immediately hear the conversation in your head.

There will be many places where your story will be expanded in a second draft -- places to describe, places to add dialog, parts to rearrange.

This doesn't mean do a slipshod job. Tell the story as well as you can. This first draft can take several months to complete, so be patient.

But when you get bogged down, just repeat that mantra: Just tell yourself the story.

Next Up: Adding Dialog