Friday’s Findings: Write That Rough Draft with Abandon

How to Silence Your Inner Editor and Finish Your Story

“I’ll write something and then throw it away,” someone recently confessed to me. “That’s why I never finish anything I start.”

My reaction? Sadness.

She didn’t want anyone to see her writing. But who said anyone had to see it? And if it was a first draft, of course, it wouldn’t be good.

I didn’t say this, but I felt like it. I hear about a lot of potential writers who sabotage themselves from enjoying the writing life. My solution: write with abandon. Who cares what anyone thinks?

Forgive me for using a reference from Friends, but in one episode, Phoebe and Rachel decide to go for a jog through New York City. Rachel had never seen Phoebe run before. Imagine Rachel’s shock when Phoebe takes off with her arms and legs flailing about as if she were an uncoordinated toddler.

“She looked like a cross between Kermit the Frog and the Six-Million-Dollar Man,” Rachel said to her friends.

But Phoebe liked to run like this. She didn’t care. It was freeing. It was fun. It got the job done. And she would never see anyone else around them ever again. NYC contains a lot of people, I guess.

I encourage anyone who wants to finish a writing project to take Phoebe’s attitude: write with abandon, arms and legs flailing. And the good news? Unlike Phoebe’s jogging, no one is going to see the writing.

The Decision

Cliché time. To finish a writing project, a writer needs to “get into the zone.” Or, to put it another way, “write with abandon.” I hear about people editing themselves as they write. As writer and actress Emmy Laybourne puts it: “You can’t write and edit at the same time … It’s like driving a car. You can’t drive with your foot on the gas and your foot on the brake.”

So, if a writer wants to get any writing done, they need to make some decisions:

• Decide they want to write a rough draft without editing themselves.
• Decide they don’t care what anyone thinks because no one is going to see that rough draft.

If someone wants to edit themselves as they write, that is fine. But it can be debilitating for a writer. But if they want to avoid editing as they write, that is fine, too. Here are some benefits of not editing while writing a rough draft:

• It’s more fun.
• The writer is more likely to finish a rough draft.
• And they can relax and enjoy writing.
• And they can remember the editing comes later.

The Mentality

But how can it be done? Freewriting. Writing sprints. Whatever it’s called, it’s the mentality to:

• Write as fast as possible,
• dump those words on paper,
• forget perfection,
• and realize no matter how hard they try, their rough draft will be bleh. They might as well embrace the mess.

I love the potter with wet clay analogy. Getting a rough draft done is like wheel throwing. The messing, slippery lump of clay is spinning around and taking shape. The glazing with colors and the baking in the kiln come later. Those are the rewriting and editing stages.

For a rough draft, the writer needs to take those words, spin them around, and make a little bit of a mess. And if they want to avoid editing as they write but aren’t sure how, here are some tips:

• Remember no one is going to read it.
• Practice freewriting.
• Do writing sprints.
• Do minor editing and leave the major rewrites for later.

The Training

This mentality of not editing during the rough draft takes training. Writers can train themselves slowly, at first, with small writing projects. Here’s a plan:

• Time themselves. Start small. Do 1-minute sprints. Then a 5-minute, Then a ten-minute, and so on.
• Build up to thirty- or sixty-minute sprints if they want.
• Challenge themselves to write a whole scene or chapter before editing.
• Challenge themselves to write an entire novel or story before major editing.

A little editing doesn’t hurt. For example, when starting a writing session, a writer can always do some minor editing on the previous day’s work to get the blood flowing. The key is not to go down that rabbit hole of editing before the writer finishes the rough draft.

In the meantime, any writer who wants to finish that rough draft should try running with their arms and legs flailing.

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Photo by Boys in Bristol Photography

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