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Now that we’ve reviewed the basic elements of your story that need to be in place before you start writing your first draft—in parts 1, 2, 3, and 4 of this series the final step is to make sure you’ve prepared yourself to write it.

As challenging as writing any first draft can be, sometimes they can also come  with the added pressures of a hard deadline, breakneck pace, and not-insignificant word-count goal. Any of these pressures can be enough to stall out your momentum. Here are some suggestions to set yourself up to succeed.

Set Clear Parameters

Just as with the story itself, the more clearly and specifically you define a few key elements of the writing process itself, the better your chances of staying on track—and not stalling out or getting derailed.

Create a concrete structure for reaching your goals, whether it’s a firm schedule for your writing time, a daily amount of time spent writing, a specific word count each day or session, a specific session goal (a certain scene or chapter, or a sequence of events), or some combination of these.

If some days don’t go to plan, make sure to have a backup plan for how you can make up the lost time or word count.

Work in Focus Blocks

I’ve written here about how often we may fracture our own focus in the midst of a specific task, even when we may not be aware we’re doing it. Staying focused on your writing when you’re writing can yield astonishing results in productivity.

Try something akin to the “Pomodoro method” of time blocking: Decide on stretches of time to write—whatever works for your schedule—during which you will not check your phone, email, or otherwise let yourself be distracted by anything except an unavoidable need to go to the bathroom.

These don’t have to be long blocks–Pomodoro suggests 25 minutes. But during this time you only write. If it helps to block out your focus blocks by word count instead do that—500 words per block, for instance, or whatever gets you to you daily total.

But be militant about guarding these blocks against any and all distractions. There is unlikely to be any situation that can’t wait 30, 60, or 90 minutes until your next break.

And make sure to take those breaks. Don’t try working through for too long without giving yourself a chance to regather your thoughts. These can be short—5-10 minutes—but holding any concentration for too long wearies the brain and offers diminishing returns on your creativity and productivity.

Use those breaks. In his excellent book Rest, Alex Soojung-Kim Pang writes about many of the greatest minds in history who intentionally used nature walks or other non–mentally demanding nourishing activities to allow their brains to continue to work obliquely on whatever problem they were trying to solve.

A walk outside, a workout, or even a shower can offer some of the most productive “writing” time you may spend, working through plot knots or story stumbles, so that when you return to the desk for your next focus block, you hit the keyboard ready to move the story forward.

Don’t Go Backward

First-drafting—especially on a deadline—is not the time to get into editor brain or stop to revise or fine-tune the manuscript. Spit it out and keep moving forward.

If you realize the story has evolved in a way that will require rewriting earlier in the manuscript, make a note of it and keep writing forward as though you already began the story that way—you’ll go back later and fix it. Every time you edit or revise while drafting you pull yourself out of creative writer brain.

And every time you go backward, you lose valuable time you need to hit your 50K word goal.

Vomit It Up: Write the Skeleton Draft

You’re not trying to create a polished finished product in this fast draft. All you’re doing is laying out the bare bones of your story so that you have something to work on in the revision passes you’ll do as you develop the story later, once the time crunch is off of you.

That’s where the real magic of writing happens anyway—in editing and revision. This initial draft is what writer and podcast host Rachael Herron calls the skeleton draft, and that’s all it’s meant to be.

Don’t worry about the final product, don’t worry if it’s not pretty prose, and don’t even worry if it isn’t fully tying together. You can fix it in post, as we used to say in my acting days. Get the basic story on the page, and have strategies for shaking yourself back into forward motion if you get stuck.

Give Yourself Permission to Suck

I start every single writing session, both fiction and nonfiction, by literally announcing to myself, “Permission to suck!” That helps to keep my inner editor away to free me to create without the fetters of self-judgment.

The editor is going to slow you down, and can sometimes stop you altogether as it makes you start judging and doubting what you’re writing. Remember, this is the skeleton draft—no one ever has to lay eyes on it until you’re ready.

Don’t give airtime to those demons that tell you the story is no good, or a waste of time, or spinning its wheels, or that you can’t do this. Refuse to judge yourself. Remember what even a writer of Ernest Hemingway’s stature knew: “The first draft of anything is shit.” It’s supposed to be. That’s the process.

Which brings us to maybe the most important tip of all:

Cut Yourself Some Slack

Life is unexpected. I woke up Monday morning the day before my husband and I were to leave for a camping trip and realized I’d forgotten to write this blog post for the week.

For a moment I panicked, trying to figure out how to get the post written and posted from the middle of the woods. And then I realized the deadline was only my own—I usually run these posts first thing on Thursday, but an extra day wasn’t the end of the world.

Things happen. Life is unexpected. You can wrap yourself in knots because you didn’t hit your goal when you said you would, or you can adapt your plans.

The point is simply to get you in the chair and writing, and any words at all are a win. If you need to, renegotiate your deadline. What matters is that you eventually get the manuscript finished—not that you hit a certain word count by some arbitrarily chosen endpoint.

Feel free to share your own tips and techniques for staying on track below, authors. Remember if you need to, you can review parts 1, 2, 3, and 4 of this series. 

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