Today I spent time hanging out with a friend and then I came home to start writing. I found myself going back to reread what I had already written, and then I groaned. I knew where this was headed. I was getting caught up in the little details of the story. The ones that never make sense in the first draft. Example? My main character (MC) in the first chapter left the pod at age 11. In the second chapter he left the pod at 13. In the rough draft, this doesn't matter, but in my mind today as I reread what I've written, it was annoying me! So I found myself going through looking for the little details.
And this was a problem. After spending an hour reading through the rough draft, what amounts to 3 chapters total, I realized my flaw and all but screamed at myself to STOP! I didn't need to read through the rough draft to continue to write the story. In reality, reading through that draft impeded my work. I was unable to go on with the story until I could find and fix ridiculous flaws.
When I talk around other writers I know, I find this is a very common problem. Everyone wants to make everything PERFECT immediately, myself included, that we lose site of the bigger pictures. We lose site of the fact that all first drafts suck massively. All first drafts are something you never want anyone to read, and that is okay. It is okay to verbally throw up on the paper, get everything down, then go back and make decisions and rewrite parts that suck.
As a writer, I feel it's important that you like what you write. Which is why editing is so awesome. But I also think it's important to stop getting caught up in the little details. How many people do you show the first draft to? Me, personally, None. Not a single person. Not my partner, not my best friend, not my editing buddy, no one. So stop worrying about what you've already written until you are done writing it! The next great novel may come from you, unless you edit it away.
Until next time.
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