On Writing: The Draft

A common problem for many writers is attempting to make the first draft perfect. There are two reasons that this is an exercise in futility: 1. There is no such thing as a perfect draft, and 2. Completing the draft will be a long and tedious process.

The purpose of the first draft isn’t the production of a finished piece. The purpose is to get our thoughts and ideas on paper. When we are writing the draft, we use our outline to provide orders to our subconscious. In turn, our subconscious provides us with the material for our writing project.

Our subconscious will not always provide us with the most important and relevant thoughts and ideas. As when we are brainstorming, we want to let our subconscious run free. We don’t want to evaluate what it is providing. We simply want to capture the thoughts and ideas on paper. If we evaluate what our subconscious is providing, we interrupt the flow of ideas. We are essentially telling our subconscious, “Give me thoughts about X, and they better be good thoughts.”

Our subconscious cannot determine what is a good thought and what isn’t. That is a function of the conscious mind. As I have previously noted, writing requires us to use both our conscious mind and our subconscious mind. And we must use each at the appropriate time in the writing process. Many writing problems result from a failure to do so.

If we aim for perfection in our first draft, we are oscillating between our conscious and subconscious minds at a time we should rely solely on our subconscious. Writing slows to a crawl.

When writing our first draft, we should accept the fact that it may be crappy. But we can’t fix it until it exists on paper. Indeed, the most important step in writing is editing. During the editing process, we use our conscious mind to identify all the reasons the first draft was crappy. And then we make it less crappy.