Whether you’ve been writing for five minutes or fifty years, first drafts are hard. They rarely resemble the perfect story your imagination wants, and too often, the gulf between the goal and the reality causes writers to give up. More than two dozen books into my publishing career, I still struggle with first drafts. But I have learned some techniques to trick the voices of negativity in my head. Maybe they will help you too.

1) Remember who your real audience is.

The audience for your final book is your readers. But for a first draft, your real audience is simply…you. Future You, who will somehow take this vaguely book-shaped mess you are creating and turn it, draft by draft, into a real book.

Present You has only one responsibility: assemble the ingredients that Future You will need. Future You will have all kinds of perspectives and ideas on how to fix your story, thanks to the hard work that Present You is doing right now to assemble the raw ingredients.

Future You will bake the cake. All Present You has to worry about is measuring out the flour and sugar.

Continue reading 6 Ways to Get Unstuck in Your First Draft →