There’s a Terry Prachett quote I’ve been sharing with anyone who will listen.
You’ve probably already read it but if you’re at the beginning - and staring at a blank page - these ten words hit hard.
"The first draft is just you telling yourself the story."
Let’s be honest, it’s overwhelming diving into a story for the first time.
And we’re human, so we’re almost certainly already wondering - before any words have been written - what others will think of our work.
But here, Terry is giving us permission to rid ourselves of that burden.
The late fantasy novelist gave this advice many times over in different ways.
Back in 2002, he also told the Guardian this:
“I, on the other hand am a technophile, so there is no such thing as a first draft. The first draft plunges on, and about a quarter of the way through it I realise I'm doing things wrong, so I start rewriting it. What you call the first draft becomes rather like a caterpillar; it is progressing fairly slowly, but there is movement up and down its whole length, the whole story is being changed. I call this draft zero, telling myself how the story is supposed to go.”
The idea of ‘draft zero’ has really helped me recently. Right now, I’m mumbling words and ideas to myself and because it’s just me I can write anything I want. Conjure up any situation I want. Creative weird people and odd dialogue that doesn’t make sense.
But I don’t care because I know at some point it will make sense.
And when you’re still at the bottom of the mountain, that’s a heavy load lifted.
Lisa
Very encouraging, Lisa! Thanks for posting this