One Draft Writing
If you want to write professionally, then one of the key challenges you’re going to face is getting the most profit from the least amount of time. Writing takes time and for every hour you spend not writing, editing or messing around on Facebook (or whatever else you might distract yourself with) is time that you’re not making money from.
For writers who manage to tear themselves away from the temptations of everything other than writing, a massive time-sink comes in the form of editing, rewriting and constant rephrasing of things you’ve already written. This absolutely increases the time it takes to write, therefore it decreases your profit per word.
The cure for this is to develop one draft writing; writing that’s so awesome when you write your first draft, you don’t edit it before you send it to wherever words go to make money for their creators.
I didn’t come up with this idea; it’s one of Heinlein’s Rules for writing. I live by these rules. They are listed below:
Heinlein’s Rules
Rule One: You Must Write
Rule Two: Finish What You Start
Three: You Must Refrain From Rewriting, Except to Editorial Order
Rule Four: You Must Put Your Story on the Market
Rule Five: You Must Keep it on the Market until it has Sold
If the idea of making money from your writing doesn’t appeal to you or the idea of sending out a first draft strikes you as disgustingly evil, then this isn’t the article for you. However, if you’d like to make more money in less time and probably be a better writer as well, here are my tips for one draft writing that’ll get you started with producing professional quality work on your first attempt.
Before I do, I suppose I’d better give a list of why you should listen to me for the new people that trickle in via Google search. I’ve written I-don’t-know-how-many articles (easily in the thousands) for freelance clients, and I almost universally send out a first draft. I’ve written whole books in this way, and back in my student days, I never did more than one draft for an assignment.
You might hate the idea, but I live this approach.
Let’s get on with the key things that make one draft writing possible.
A Cursory Understanding Of Grammar and Language
It’d be pretty terrible for me to act like everything I write is a polished piece of prose that’d make Shakespeare red with envy. I’m not that good at writing and a lot of my sentences have some pretty sketchy construction.
That said, if you want to get away with one draft writing, then you have to have a basic modicum of English language ability; in the case of freelance writing, you need to get your point across in simple language. In the case of fiction writing, you need to progress the story whilst giving the reader a clear idea of what’s going on.
If you’re a non-native speaker, this will be your biggest hurdle. If you’re not a natural writer, then you have to pay attention. The most common error is writing in the same way you speak. Make sure you’re writing as you would read it, not how it sounds in your head.
Planning Your Document Out
Some people write on the edge of their seat, generating ideas as they go along. I don’t, and I wouldn’t recommend it, especially for people who are writing for clients.
When you write for a client, they’ll have a set list of things you need to talk about. If it’s a sales letter, then you need to hit all the benefits and finish with a call to action. If it’s a how-to article, you’ll have specific steps that the reader needs to take.
Should you write as you go along, it’ll take longer, you’ll have to edit things in and you’ll lose your flow and your time.
Even with fiction, this process takes longer. Either you end up cutting things out because you’ve followed an arc in your story that’s not relevant, or you end up like George R.R. Martin, writing hundreds of pages about how good Tyrion’s breakfast was and spending fifty years writing a single fantasy novel. Don’t be like George.
The Ability To Keep A Constant Train Of Thought
The above leads me into the next point: You need to be able to concentrate long enough to get a single draft finished. You need that train of thought to be ruthlessly concentrated on the task, otherwise you overwhelm yourself.
Theoretically, any one subject can lead to a multitude of subjects. In this article, I could have told you about Heinlein’s rules. I could have told you more about my experience. I could have given you hundreds of examples of how I used this. Both of us would have been sat here all day – you reading, me writing. One draft writing allows you to condense and concentrate your thoughts on a single subject, and you must do this for one draft writing to work for you.
The Ability to Sit in Your Chair until It’s Done
This is practically the same as above. If you’re doing a single draft then you need discipline. You’ll only have a singular train of thought for so long, and so doing five minutes at a time here and there won’t cut it. This isn’t a problem if your great novel is in its sixty-third draft, because you’re going to rewrite everything again anyway and let’s face it; if the first sixty-two drafts aren’t that great, you’re probably never going to work up the courage to let anyone read the thing anyway.
With one draft writing, there are no excuses. This article will take me about forty five minutes, and there are no excuses. I can’t blame it on an editor or constantly refine it and never hit publish, because I know that it’ll take me a certain amount of time and then it’s time to release it.
The only variable that matters with one draft writing is the amount of time you sit in the chair and work.
Trust In Your Own Voice and Ability
This might seem a wishy-washy last reason in the list, but it was originally going to be the “one key” and only thing I wrote about in the whole article.
Essentially, the key thing to one draft writing is to trust that your writing is good enough to be read at a single draft. This requires (and builds) a self-confidence that most people don’t have. This lack of confidence is the reason that everyone knows someone who is “working on a novel” and it’s the reason most writing never gets published.
My writing is far from perfect. I publish it and send it to clients anyway. If they want it changed, then I’ll change it for them without a qualm because it’s their product. If it’s my article or book, I can alter it later if I feel the need, and if it’s a book – well, there’s a reason there are multiple editions of a single book.
The key factor is having enough belief in your own writing to do this. If I try to sell a short story to a collection, then I’ll send it off and never think about it until I hear back. If I write a book and publish it, then I don’t assume it’s terrible unless I get one-star reviews. (This hasn’t happened yet, even though I’m ninety-percent sure some of my books are terrible.) If it’s for a client, I don’t automatically assume I’m getting an angry email. I have belief in my writing, and so I send it out. That’s all there is to it.
Final Thoughts
One draft writing is important. The quicker you write, the more you write. The more you write, the more you can earn.
One draft writing isn’t about sending out shoddy writing though; it has to be good. If you follow the above rules and practice a lot, then you’ll get very good at one draft writing in a pretty short space of time.
In a world where most writers never finish a piece of work, many writers never publish anything and lots of writers publish slowly and erratically, one draft writing is a major skill and selling point.