A lot of writers give up when writing their first draft and their reason is simple – they don’t think their work is good enough!

And whilst most people will say they want to write a book, very few people complete this task. Or if they do they rarely get past the first attempt.

One of the reasons many people fail to become writers is because they give up after their first draft.

Most first drafts fail:

Some writers feel like they have failed if their first draft isn’t perfect.

This is normal and a surprising common reason why some people dream of writing a book but never complete it. The first draft is rarely if any going to be ready to publish, at least not if you want to publish something of quality.

It’s normal to make mistakes, spell words wrong and forget details about characters and the timeline that don’t make sense when you read it back. In short, it’s normal for your work not to be great. And that is Okay! The difference between a good writer and a great writer is editing and time.

If you’re expecting your first draft to be award winning you’ll no doubt be disappointed to feel like you have felt short. But remember, we don’t see how many drafts or edits occurred to published books you only get a glimpse at the finished product.

It’s the same as someone who has just ran a 10K comparing themselves to a marathon winner. A lot of extra work and training went into getting to the finish line of the marathon. So remember a lot of extra work is needed to a first draft before it is ‘done’.

What we need to remember as writers is that the first draft will be bad. Your first draft will fail to get any agents or publishers interested and this is because the first go at your story isn’t meant to be good.

This can be an unsettling thing to think about. We all want to be good at things, especially writing. However, normalising writing a bad first draft can help you move forward.

And once you take that step from your first draft, you are on your way to publication.

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Focus on completion not perfection:

Once you get into the mindset of letting your first draft be bad everything is easier.

Without worrying about perfection, it is easier to just write. Getting words on a page is half the battle and once you overcome this you have something to work with.

What a lot of writers forget is writing is only part of the craft. The other part being editing, redrafting, and marketing. There is a lot more to writing than just the words (even if we would like it to be). And there is a lot more to a finished story than just the first attempt.

Although getting to the point of having a draft to work with is an amazing achievement. It’s important to celebrate this milestone and then push on to the next stage of the process.

Your first draft is just the beginning:

Whilst it can be hard to see the first draft as only the beginning, I promise it will change your mindset on writing and allow you to think of it more in stages.

Because, once you have a first draft you will be able to:

• Develop your story
• Add detail and expand on your ideas
• Work out any issues with the plot
• Start to proofread and edit your work

So if you are currently writing and feeling like your draft is not good enough, just remember its not meant to be. If you are willing to work on it later, you will improve so for now just add words to a page and worry about everything else once you complete it.

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