Writing the 1st Draft

     In some ways, writing the first draft can be the hardest, and in some ways it is the easiest part of writing a novel or short story.  It is where your story takes shape and begins to look like...well...an actual story instead of a group of ideas on a sheet of paper or a plot chart.  Sometimes it can be easy; and sometimes it can be difficult.  It is where your ideas begin to come to life in the form of dialogue, description, and action.  In your plan, you may have put "Miranda gets attacked by antagonist", you actually describe the scene of her getting attacked.  Here are some tips to make writing the first draft a bit easier.  Now, I'm not saying that it will be easy...
    

     Your 1st draft will be far from perfect.

     Don't expect it to be perfect.  If you do, then you will get frustrated far easier and want to stop working on the story because it probably is...well...just plain awful.  You will edit your first draft after you write it to make it perfect.

     Don't worry about spelling or grammar too much.

     This is something that you can fix when you are editing.  I know, I am fanatic about not having red lines under my words too.  But, if I can't right click and see the correct spelling, I usually leave it alone.  Grammar...I leave that for editing.  If you try to edit your first draft while writing it, it can slow you down.  Remember, your first draft is not supposed to be perfect!  It is a "quick" write to get your story on paper!  This will not be the version that you submit to an agent or publisher.

     Don't expect to get the 1st draft done in a week!

     It is not impossible to get the 1st draft done in a week, but highly unlikely.  Think about it, if you are writing a novel, you have to write at least 60,000 words!  The most I have ever written in a day was 10,000 words, and that was only once!  Usually, the most I can write in one day is about 3,000 words before my brain totally goes dead until the next day.  So if I do a little bit of math, 3,000 x 7 = 21,000 words in a week.  In order to write a 60,000 word novel in a week, you would have to write about 8,572 words every day! 

     A lot of authors can finish their first drafts in a month.

     A month is a lot more feasible.  A LOT!  Instead of writing 8,500 words each day, you would only have to write 2,000 words a day for 30 days.  There is something in the month of November called NaNoWrimo.  I know, I know, it sounds super bazaar!  It stands for National Novel Writing Month, which means, well, you write the first draft of a novel in one month!  Click here for the link to the NaNoWrimo website.

Build a support team.

     Find yourself some writing friends, or find some good friends who love to read.  Get them excited about reading your novel when its finished!  Tell them the plot, but be careful not to accidentally spill the beans on plot twists.  Let them know your progress and show them your character inspiration pictures.  Hopefully, they will encourage you to continue writing your novel when you don't feel like pressing on!

     My biggest tip is to have FUN!

     Yes, at times, writing can be a chore.  But, at least try to enjoy it!  If you do not have any deadlines, try writing a lot when inspiration strikes you.  Or, if you don't think that you have the time to write a novel, check out this blog post on Go Teen Writers called Write A Novel, Ten Minutes At A Time.


So, those are my tips to writing the first draft of your story!  God bless!