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Creative Writing

Finishing the first draft

How to actually finish a first draft — the mindset shifts and small daily commitments that produce a complete manuscript.

Most unfinished writing dies somewhere in the middle of the first draft. The cause is almost never lack of talent. It is the moment when the writer realises the draft is bad — and decides to fix it before continuing.

Why this kills drafts

Editing a half-draft is different work from writing one. It uses different mental muscles, and switching between them on the same project is the fastest way to stall. Allow the first draft to be bad. The fixing comes later.

A useful rule: do not reread anything you wrote until the draft is complete. If you must look back to remember a name, look only for that name and close the file.


Written by

Dakota Bell

Gowo is a small independent blog about creative writing. Written and edited by Dakota Bell, based in Ghent.

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