Writing Tips: Beat the First Draft Blues

Let's face it: writing the first draft of any work is the hardest part of the writing process. Not only is a blank page terrifying, but getting those first words on paper without re-writing them a hundred times can arguably be worse (well, at least for perfectionists like me).

Every writer knows that the first draft has to be "bad" for the next drafts to have something to work from, but ultimately, having a goal, a routine, and a deadline can be incredibly helpful to getting that first draft on the page.

Set Goals (and achieve them)

SOCIAL CUT, Unsplash

Goals can give us a "north star" to guide us through the creative journey, so make yours clear, specific, and unique to you and your project.

Whether it's a certain amount of words, chapters, or sections you want written for your first draft of a work, make sure to be specific. How many words will make this work "finished" to you? How many chapters will it take to finish it? How many sections getting done will make it feel like you're accomplishing something?

If you track your goals in a planner, calendar, Notes app, or even vision board, staying conscious of your goals and externalizing them is the first step toward better writing habits.

Create (and stick to!!)

a Routine (that works for you!!)

Mika Baumeister, Unsplash

As someone who can't stick to a routine for more than a week without feeling the itch to switch it up - but also as someone who knows that a writing routine is essential to breaking down goals into more palatable chunks - creating a routine and sticking to it can be a challenge.

In order to keep writing time fresh and new, give yourself flexibility in the actual time you write during the day. For example, you could plan time to write in the morning on Monday, late evening on Tuesday, etc., and when the day comes you could end up writing for an hour on your lunch break instead. Just the act of creating the "time" in your schedule to think about it during the day, regardless of when you end up getting to it, helps keep it front of mind.

Allowing yourself the flexibility of changing the times you write during the day gives you freedom and space within the routine instead of wanting to break out of the routine. Sometimes it's as much about getting your brain to do what you need to do as it is about getting your words down.

There's a wealth of resources in community, too. I like using a tool in Discord called #Sprinto, where you can set a timer for how long you want to write and see how many words you can get written in a certain time frame (15 or 30 minute sprints are my favorite). This keeps the act of writing in a short period of time as productive as possible. For first drafts, this is a must. For extra fun, put together a group of writing friends in a Discord channel and do the sprints together to see who "wins" (even though everyone wins because you're all writing).

Deadlines, Deadlines, Deadlines

Towfiq Barbhuiya, Unsplash

Even for me, a detail-oriented and organized writer, procrastination is SO real. If I don't have a deadline for a project, it'll never get done, because my brain will just kick back and say, "I have so much time to do this. Why not just do something else instead right now?"

While procrastination can actually be beneficial to the creative process (such as me procrastinating writing my story submission for our 2025 short story contest by writing this blog post instead), it can easily turn into avoidance if you're not careful. I'm certain I'm not the only one, or else there wouldn't be so many creatives trying to tackle this very problem!

Deadlines, whether externally found or internally created, make space for accountability. Having an "end date" can help structure the rest of your writing time into smaller chunks (500 words a day, two chapters a month, etc.) as well as give you confidence when you see how far you've actually come by the end of it ("Wow! I wrote 100,000 words this year!").

Whether you find a friend or colleague to be your writing cheerleader or you set your own reward for hitting a deadline, it's more fun to write with others! Having a friend eagerly waiting to read the next part of your work is a great confidence booster - you know you want to engage your audience, so why not start early?

Speaking of external deadlines, what better way to utilize this tips than when writing your submission for our 2025 short story contest?

---

I hope you found these writing tips helpful. Don't be discouraged if you set a routine but need to change something halfway through. It's all part of the creative process, and you're not alone.

For more writing tips and monthly updates on all things Dreambridge, consider subscribing to our monthly newsletter.