All posts by kathymacmillan

6 Ways to Get Unstuck in Your First Draft

On Writing

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 →

Read This!: DREAMS TAKE FLIGHT by Brittany Richman and Alisha Monnin

Authors You Should Know, Read This, Recommended Reading, ,

Dreams Take Flight: The Story of Deaf Pilot Nellie Zabel Willhite (Own Voices, Own Stories)Dreams Take Flight: The Story of Deaf Pilot Nellie Zabel Willhite by Brittany Richman and Alisha Monnin
Summary: After losing her hearing at four and following a tumultuous education, Nellie Zabel was introduced to the world of flight while working at the Sioux Falls airport. The planes and pilots captured her imagination as she watched them sail alongside the birds. With some encouragement, she enrolled in pilot training–carefully tailoring the courses to accommodate her deafness. In 1928, she took off on her own, becoming the first female pilot in South Dakota–and the first deaf pilot in the nation.

This lovely nonfiction picture book tells the true story of Nellie Zabel Willhite, who became the first licensed deaf pilot in the US. The world was far from accommodating when she was growing up as a deaf child in the early 1900s, but with a combination of her own persistence and the support of caring adults, she got an education and found a job. But when she finally took the flying lessons she had been dreaming of, her life took off. This story features an inspiring woman at its center, but it is also a great discussion-starter about intersectional identities and the various barriers that marginalized people throughout history have faced.

DREAMS TAKE FLIGHT is out now.

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