2025-05-31

primeideal: Lan and Moiraine from "Wheel of Time" TV (moiraine damodred)
2025-05-31 08:44 am
Entry tags:

Uninhibited Drafting

There's the advice of "write drunk, edit sober," meaning: for the first draft, just get words on paper, don't worry about making it perfect, if you agonize too long about that you'll never get anywhere. Bang the words out until you have a finished draft, then go back and edit it.

I've also heard that, even for people who don't drink alcohol, the "inner editor" gets tired late at night. So for a similar effect, you can write the first drafts late in the evenings, then edit during daylight hours.

Well, I'm trying to draft something for a new-ish market I've had my eyes on for a couple months, and right now, my deal to myself is "I know I'm using way too many italics for emphasis, but it's a first draft and I'm allowed to do this just to get it done. Once I have a draft and I know it'll be in the right word count range, I can go back and take them out and trust my readers to hear the cadence correctly."