First draft

I opened my e-mail this afternoon and saw an advertisement for a course at Writer's Digest University called "12 Weeks to a First Draft." Now that sounded catchy. I was also interested in the idea of a fast first draft because National Novel Writing Month is in two months and members of the newest critique group I am in are planning a novel-writing workshop at a local library to help kick off the month.

Several of the selling points for the WD course included, "How to employ writing techniques to facilitate the first draft of your novel," "How to maintain a writing routine with clear objectives," "How to pace your novel," and "How to implement literary conventions such as plot, character, setting, style, exposition, dialogue and tension in your novel."

All those are good, of course, but I also hope the course stresses one truly important fact, which is something they could give for free: Writing is hard work and there is no substitute for planting your butt in a seat and doing the hard work.

For for the uninitiated in writing a fast work (and particularly for people who might also want to try NaNoWriMo), I hope the course doesn't place too much emphasis on all those "literary conventions" such as plot, characters and setting. While those are EXTREMELY important, I think the most important things to remember are setting a realistic goal for completion and working every day to achieve that goal. I strongly believe if you focus too much on the mechanics of writing a masterpiece, it is too easy to get bogged down and discouraged, and thus not finish.

There will always be obstacles to finishing -- obstacles over which you have no control. You don't need to add more.

I think the best advice is sit down and write. A compelling plot, exciting characters, believable dialogue and good setting, if you don't get it done in the first draft, can be -- and, in fact, will need to be -- added in later drafts. You have to remember, it is only a first draft. Get it done.

Thanks for reading and keep writing.