17 Perspectives on the Rough Draft

Each week until the end of National Novel Writing Month in November, I’m going to write about a different creativity topic related to NaNoWriMo. If you’re not doing NaNoWriMo, don’t worry: all of the topics should relate to any creative project.

Here are the first pieces in the series:

• Hark, did I hear a story idea?
• The Decision: Competing Story Ideas
• The Number One Top Secret Best Way to Writing Success (a Time Strategy)
• Planning your novel? Or pantsing?
• The Character Kaleidoscope
• Taking a Trip — a Story Field Trip

I recently gave a talk to a group of writers, and a person in the audience referred to her rough draft as a “vomit draft.” Many people use the word “vomit” to describe their rough draft, but the word has always bothered me.

I know that by vomit they mean that they’re putting it all on the page, digging deep, and that the draft is a mess by definition — that you shouldn’t look for fine prose because by its very nature, a rough draft stinks.

Except to me a rough draft, no matter how messy, never truly stinks. There are always beautiful gems to be found in it — gems of storytelling, gems of prose, and, most importantly, gems of truth.