Write Like Nobody's Reading
How to Write a First Draft You’re Proud Of — Eventually
If you’ve been waiting for a sign from the universe to just get the words down, messy and imperfect and all over the place, this is it. As an established thriller author, I can tell you the truth no one wants to shout about online: not every draft is clean, clever or even readable. And that’s completely fine.
For some authors, the story flows from start to finish. Other others, it’s like stitching together a patchwork quilt with bits of scene, dialogue, or tension you know will belong somewhere… eventually. That quilt of mismatched moments might not make sense at first glance, but trust me, it will keep you warm later.
Writing Advice From Authors
There’s a reason you should listen to writing advice from authors, especially pre-AI ones. We’ve done the hard slog. We’ve produced written work and learned so much along the way. I’ve published 23 books over the last ten years. Some books come easy, and I write chapter after chapter, the words flowing from my fingers as I type. Others feel like wading through treacle with cement wellington boots. But they all get written. As Nelson Mandela said, “it always seems impossible until it’s done.” The point is to get it down. All of it. Even the cringe bits. Even the lines you know you’ll delete later. Especially those.
I use Scrivener for exactly this reason. I love that I can see the skeleton of my story laid out in chapters but jump around to wherever the energy is. If Chapter 14 is calling me today, that’s where I go. If I want to rewrite Chapter 2 for the third time because suddenly I’ve realised the twist I planted doesn’t make sense, I can go back. Writing doesn’t have to be linear. It just has to be done.
How to Write a First Draft Fast
‘How to write a first draft fast,’ is searched often on Google. OK, first, stop rushing. Don’t put pressure on yourself. Creativity isn’t linear, after all. For me, writing is like painting a picture. I work out my six part system in my mind, but sometimes it doesn’t reach the page straight away. If I’m working with a tricky story, I might start with writing dialogue, then add setting detail afterwards. I work in layers, adding as I go along.
Joy lives in the act of writing. Some of the best plot twists I’ve ever written came not from plotting, but from listening to my characters speak. Only the other day, I had some quite intense dialogue between my fictional detective and her suspect. I started reading the dialogue aloud and was surprised when one of them delivered one heck of a plot twist. Characters develop in the doing. You can plan all day long, but until you spend time with your characters, let them speak, fight, grieve, hope—you won’t really know them.
Give Yourself Permission
Author Shannon Hale says: “I’m writing a first draft and reminding myself that I’m simply shovelling sand into a box so that later I can build castles.”
Exactly that.
So give yourself permission to write badly. To jump between chapters. To scribble notes in the margins. To write like no one is watching. Because no one is. Stephen King said, “write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open.”
And if you want a tool to help you stay on track while you do all of that? I’ve created a beautiful, downloadable Author Goal Planner—for free. It’s the one I use to track my word count, and remind myself that progress is what matters most.
Common Denominator
I’ve met lots of aspiring authors. The common denominator that stalls their work is lack of confidence, because they hate how their first draft (or even second or third) looks. But the fact that they’ve written that draft is amazing, because now they have something to work with. And if it seems unworkable? That’s OK. Step away. Give it a rest. Work on a different project for a while. Then return to it with fresh eyes.
There is learning in writing. Even if you never publish that patchwork of a first draft, what you’ve learned from writing it is invaluable. Just keep going. Keep writing. Keep moving forward. Do that, and it will get easier. And if it doesn’t? It’ll get done.
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