If you met me on the street, I’d be the last person you would think who has a TikTok account. I’m not an influencer, young or remotely good at dancing and I hate being on camera. But my books aren’t going to sell themselves and the short-form video platform is a great marketing tool for indie authors and megastars a like.
So while scrolling through videos the other day, one caught my eye that gave this writer pause. It talked about a method of getting through your first draft – in one week- so you could put it behind you.
What?
My ears perked up immediately. Nothing is more excruciating for a writer than starting at a blank page and waiting for inspiration to hit. And that’s what you do every day when you’re working on your first draft. With a solid beginning to my book already written and knowing where the story ends, this short inspired to start writing again.
How?
Mainly by reminding me that first drafts usually suck. Which is one hundred percent true – most writers never sell their first drafts.
This relieved a huge amount of pressure and gave me permission to just write. I don’t need to worry about anything else but putting words down on paper and getting the basics of the I just need to create events and put them in some sort of order. Once I have built the frame of the story, then I can go back in my subsequent drafts and add all the other aspects of my story, polish my wording, adding depth to characters and situations until I have a manuscript I am proud of.
I don’t know about you, but sometimes I need to be reminded that it’s OK that things aren’t perfect. I sometimes forget that my first two books both took about nine drafts before they were ready to send to my agent and still another one or two more before they were publisher ready. So I’ve got to stop sweating this first draft. I’ve still got a long way to go before this book is finished and oddly enough that is a comforting thought.
Writing this third book has hard for me – I’m saying goodbye to characters I’ve spent more than a decade with. While I truly don’t want to leave them behind, I realize that THE RISE AND FALL OF DANI TRUEHART isn’t one of those twenty installment book series that runs for years. I also have other books I want to write just piling up in my mind. I’m glad I found me the kick in the butt I needed.
I guess the moral of this story is that sometimes you can find inspiration in the strangest places. Maybe a few video clips of dancing grandma’s or dogs in sweaters will inspire you to do something new.
The creator of the inspiring video @writingcoach also had some interesting methods she uses to start a new manuscript. If you want to check out her method and see what got me inspired, here it is:
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMRVsep2W/
Thank you @writingcoach!
Happy Tuesday!💕