Throw Caution to the Wind – Don’t Burn Your First Draft – Daily Quote

/ JoHawkTheWriter

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Nobody sees my first drafts. I ignore thoughts of who might enjoy the piece I am writing. My focus when I try to create something new is to tell a story. I don’t trouble myself with spelling or grammar or word flow. Syntax, tense and even a character’s name may change from one page to the next. The storyline ebbs and flows. When an idea strikes, I give myself permission to write while the sparks are flying. The writing jumps from a starting point to the end to various points in the middle. The beginning suffers from cross-outs and re-dos, while other parts are skipped altogether.

Believe me, the original piece is not readable. But from the chaos, magic happens. I meet my heroes and the antagonists in unique ways as they reveal their inner personality. The adventure evolves with surprises as situations unfold and my characters react according to their nature. When I write draft 2.0, I can rearrange, cut and edit the tale into something someone may one day wish to read. By the time I reach my first draft 3.0 I no longer feel the need to light a match.

How do you approach your writing process?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

12 thoughts on “Throw Caution to the Wind – Don’t Burn Your First Draft – Daily Quote”

  1. All my stories and poetry on my blogs are my first drafts. I am literally (and literary 😉 ) spewing the contents of my mind onto the page. I do correct the spelling mistakes and grammar errors that I come across, and I have been known to do a bit of pruning, but not much. If I then decided to collate my material for a book, I’d then edit thoroughly, but my followers are pretty much getting to see my raw material. Actually now I’ve admitted that I feel a little overexposed!!! 😉

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  2. My first drafts are pretty readable. Everything I post on my blog, even the 15,000 word novella I did in 7 chapters recently, are all first drafts, though with some slight editing (getting rid of typos, mostly). Of course there are quite a few changes from first draft posted here and what I publish.

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  3. I love this approach, and the trust not only in your ability, but in the process also. I like to create characters in detail first, and let them root around in my head for a while. Toe the story line. See how they acdt and react. This takes a while, but rushing it does no good.

    I can’t have a frozen pizza earlier by turning the oven up to 500 degrees! The good stuff takes time, right?

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