The shitty first draft

After the outline has been fully expanded and written out, the next step in my painstaking and rewarding writing process is -

(Drum roll here...)

Well, actually sitting down to write. It's called the shitty first draft. Some may even call it a zero draft. They can be the same, if that's your process. For me, they're different but I do complete both if a novel is giving me particular trouble. Some stories are not as easy to write, they don't flow as well, as others. Let's break down the differences and then dive into my process with each.

The Zero Draft

The zero draft is sometimes needed before the shitty first draft. It's often referred to as "freewriting." It's a collection of unfinished scenes, scattered vignettes, wayward dialogue, etc. Anything that has come to the writer in moments of inspiration that just needed to be jot down. It's never complete. No scene with an end, no chapter with a start or finish, no question answered. It's just blissful chaos. With this draft, I work best writing in a notebook.

The Shitty First Draft

The shitty first draft is the first draft that will be complete - albeit awful, as its name suggests. But no matter what, the shitty first draft is perfect as long as it is done because that's all a shitty first draft needs to be perfect. It just needs to exist. It's what I like to call the drop-a-piano-on-your-character draft. Which means, anything goes. Experiment, explore, take your characters to weird places that make no sense so long as it moves your story forward. The shitty first draft is just telling yourself the story. With this draft, I move to the laptop so I can work within OneDrive. I never want to lose what I have here, even if it's shitty.

I hope you have fun with your first draft. It's the best part of writing a novel.

Check back for the next step in the novel-crafting process.