How to Finish a First Draft

On Wednesday night/Thursday morning, I fulfilled 10 years of angsting, plotting, drafting, redrafting, and despair. I typed "The End" on the first draft of my New Adult Sci-Fi Action-Adventure-Romance. (It is entirely possible that I picked that genre for maximum hyphen potential. You know how much I love hyphens.)

And ok, fine, I've finished 2 previous first drafts of this same project, and yes, it was 7AM Thursday when I finished, and yes, I was exhausted and forgot that this particular book ends on a bit of a cliffhanger and shouldn't even have "The End" at the end, and yes, the draft is riddled with [FIX THIS LATER]s and [whatshisname]s.

But you know what? I'm still excited.

I've finished drafts of this story before, but never ones that actually told the story. Never one that actually captured what I set out to accomplish. And I think this one does. 

Finishing this first draft got me thinking about how hard it can be to actually get a book to that point, and what I've learned about finishing drafts, and I wanted to share all of that with any of you who might face similar problems.

I'm going to break this down into a list of five tips to help you finish that first draft, because I like lists and odd numbers. 

These are not in order. The claims on this list have not been evaluated by the FDA. Swim at your own risk.

1. Every Month is Novel Writing Month

I discovered NaNoWriMo my first or second year in college, and I was immediately in love. A whole month, dedicated to churning out words? With the knowledge that a bunch of people were going through the same thing? And an online word tracker where you can update your progress and even get a BADGE if you finish?! Um, yes please.

I've at least attempted to participate in NaNoWriMo for about half the years since then, and I actually "won" twice. (Never did get that badge though. I tend to forget to log my word count.)

But the way that NaNoWriMo helped me the most was actually not during November. It was back when Harper Collins was holding open submissions for Young Adult Sci-Fi and Fantasy manuscripts for their new imprint, and the deadline was October I believe. I was working on a relevant project at the time, and it was about 25% done. And it was August when I heard about this. And I was in college full-time. So naturally I decided I needed to marathon the rest of this book and submit it. Using the tools I've previously honed in the preceding Novembers, I lit that keyboard up and finished and submitted that manuscript on the very last day, like 30 minutes before the link closed.

And I got a three-book deal out of that and that's how I became the New York Times Best-Selling Author I am today, which is of course why you're taking advice from me, right?

No, just kidding, it was a first draft that a college junior wrote in a month and a half, so it was hot garbage and it got rejected. But that experience was still amazing, because a lightbulb clicked on in my head that bulldozing my way through a manuscript was not some special concept reserved for the mystical month of November. It was something I could be doing all the time. 

 I'll be doing a whole post dedicated to NaNoWriMo tips in October, but to summarize, the most useful things are word sprints, peer pressure, and no second-guessing. It makes a much less polished draft, but the chances go way up that you'll actually reach the end. And as the old saying goes, it's easier to polish a whole turd than half a rock.

Just kidding. No one, ever, in the history of ever, has ever said that. And hopefully no one ever will again.

r/brandnewsentence


2. The Magic of Sh*tty First Drafts

Related but distinct, let it be bad. Just finish it. Also, buy a copy of Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird. Read it cover to cover. Then throw away every other book on writing you have. Yes, even On Writing. 


3. Don't Research or Edit

Worst writing advice ever, in ANY other context, but the best way to plow through a first draft. While you're writing, keep a document open that just contains things you need to research and edit, but DON'T stop writing to google something, or go hunting through your pages to find and fix every time you called that one city the old name instead of the new one. Leave all the changes for your second draft.


4. Outline Beforehand

Before you start your draft, create an outline. For some people, this is a meticulously organized flow-chart-looking Type A wetdream/my nightmare. Guys, I saw an article recommending making your outline as a spreadsheet. Seriously. They were outlining their book in Excel. And that's fine for them and like, whatever works, but personally I think if I ever open Excel a small army of wild-haired writing fairies in tiny sweatpants will swoop in my window and rip up my English Major card, but if you're willing to risk it...

Because people talking about outlines like they have to be a spreadsheet or like, made of headings and subheadings, I didn't ever think I outlined. I thought I was a pantser. But then I realized that when I have an idea, and write down a summary of all the characters and how the story will go, that's an outline. A kind of chaotic and messy one, but it's a blueprint for where I'm heading, and that's all I need.

Use whatever outlining method you like, but have an idea of where you're taking the story before you start. Even if that's just writing a list of scenes you're excited to get to, it will help you get through the draft.


5. Don't be Afraid to Leave Gaps

One of my biggest writing challenges is that I have this tendency to overwrite (Are you shocked right now? Isn't that shocking? TELL ME HOW SHOCKED YOU ARE). Inevitably, at some point *cough the middle cough cough* the story devolves into a grueling description of what the main character eats, what they dream, when they shower. And then I just lose interest, because if I wanted to devote all my attention to the bladder needs of a person I made up, I could just go play Sims.

(Yes I did go play Sims and create this Sim specifically for this picture. And yes the sim is loosely based on my favorite Authortuber. No I don't have any regrets.)


Transitions are hard. Balancing the humanity of your character with their Protagonism is a challenge. But a good rule of thumb that I stole is, if your reader could reasonably imagine something happening, you don't need to write it. Everybody's peed. Unless there's something deeply remarkable about the particular bathroom trip your character takes (tarantula-squid in the toilet, maybe?), it doesn't need to take up space in the book.

Now, a word of warning... don't do what I did at first and take this as license to make every single thing that your character does somehow fascinating, as a justification for including it. It might seem like a good idea in the moment. It deeply isn't. It won't make your book more exciting, it will just make it exhausting, because nobody wants to read about a character that can't even eat a bowl of cereal or walk to the bus stop once without fighting off ninjas, being abducted by aliens, or fighting off a small army of wild-haired writing fairies in tiny sweatpants with their heroic-level coffee breath.

Only write the important parts. If there's a week or a month between important parts, just leave yourself a note to figure out how to best show that time passed, and move on to the next important bit. This will speed the story up, insert some realism, and significantly cut down on the extra wordage. 


I hope this list helps somebody. I'd love to hear from any of you about what you think is the hardest part of that first draft! Feed me your comments, lest I starve in a void of my own words.


Today's Song Recs:

The Magic by Lola Blanc

Dance in the Dark by Au/Ra

Run Boy Run by Woodkid 

What I'm Reading This Week:

Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan
and
The Know-it-All by A.J. Jacobs