I’ve been itching to share this for a while now. My last project was Cinderella, and since there’s already one version of Cinderella for Far Faria, I decided to do a Filipino version version just to mix it up.
“man ur such a pussy” a jock says to me. i laugh. “well,” i begin, looking up at him and popping the collar of my jean jacket, “like they say,” everyone waits in anticipation, “u are what u eat.” the jock dies instantly, the crowd cheers, obama is there,
Austrian National Library. Situated in Hofburg Palace in Vienna, this library is the largest in Austria housing 7.4 million items in their collections.
First things first: BIG FUCKING CONGRATULATIONS on finishing your first draft. No really, take a minute to feel all smug, because it’s a massive achievement and we totally understand if you’re exhausted, sick of the sight of your own words, and want to hide under a rock forever. THIS IS PERFECTLY NORMAL.
The second thing you should know is this:
THE FIRST DRAFT OF ANYTHING IS SHIT
First drafts are meant to be shit. ‘Tis true. So stop worrying if yours stinks worse than the inside of a tauntaun. The purpose of a first draft is to get the ideas out of your caffeine-addled head and onto the page.
In fact, start thinking of it as a ZERO draft. And if your zero draft is a pile of shit, that’s fine – turn that shit into fertiliser and use it to sprout the beautiful seed of your REAL story…
Your zero draft is there to provide you with the fundamental building blocks of your plot. It ain’t meant to be pretty. But what it should do is show you what works, what doesn’t, and what’s missing.
And you’re certainly not alone. Plenty of famous, successful authors write shitty first drafts:
Tolkien’s original plans for Bilbo had him drenched in dragon gore surfing out of Erebor on a river of blood (actually, that sounds amazing – why would you cut that?)
Markus Zusak reckons he rewrote the first 90 pages of The Book Thief over a hundred times
The Great Gatsby was almost called The High-Bouncing Lover
Roald Dahl’s James almost rode on a giant cherry instead of a peach (and check out some of his other distinctly dark early draft ideas here)
So to begin: chill the frack out and find peace with your own less-than-perfect first attempt. It’ll get better. It will. No really, IT WILL. But it doesn’t happen overnight.
