The most paralyzing belief in writing is that the first draft should be good. It shouldn’t be. It can’t be. And the sooner you accept this, the faster you’ll finish things.
Anne Lamott called first drafts “shitty first drafts” — not as an insult, but as a liberation. The first draft’s only job is to exist. Everything else is revision’s job.
What the First Draft Is For
The first draft is where you find out what the story actually is. You may have planned one thing; the draft will tell you another. Characters will do things you didn’t intend. Scenes will open up. Threads you thought were important will turn out to be irrelevant. Things you didn’t plan will turn out to be the real story.
This is not failure. This is the process working correctly.
Writing teacher Natalie Goldberg talks about “first thoughts” — the raw, unfiltered output that comes before the editorial mind wakes up and starts second-guessing. First drafts should preserve first thoughts. You can shape them later. You can’t revise something that doesn’t exist.
Don’t Edit While Drafting
The critical voice and the creative voice are different mental modes. When you stop mid-sentence to correct your word choice, or delete a paragraph because it isn’t good enough, you’re switching between modes — and the friction kills momentum.
Turn off the editor while you draft. Write badly and keep going. You’ll be surprised how often, looking back, the passages you thought were terrible turn out to be the most alive.
Embrace the Surprises
The best moments in a first draft are the ones you didn’t plan. A character says something you didn’t expect. A scene goes somewhere uncharted. These surprises are the draft showing you what the story wants to be. Follow them.
Your Drill
Free-write a messy draft of a short story — aim for 1,000 words — without editing a single line. No backspace except for typos. When you’re done, blog about how it felt to let go of control.
Written by
Redaksi Bacalah
Content Team — Bacalah