Writing Tips: Drafting

Okay, so you have the idea, you've brainstormed it for awhile, and now it's time to get down to business. Still, the idea of composing a full draft is daunting, especially when you're working on a novel. What's worse is there's no special secret except staying rooted to your computer for a set time each day. What has helped me is to set up a calendar (actually, two calendars). The first calendar is in an inexpensive daybook, where I jot down the number of words written each day. Then, as a small reward, I give myself a sticker. It's elementary but still a nice treat. Buy the prettiest stickers you can find, and by the end of the month, you'll have a colorful display of the amount of work you've done.

The second calendar is on my computer, where I have a chart set up in Word where I document the number of words written each day. In the last two rows of the chart, I log in how many words written that week and then log the number written thus far this year. I actually received this idea from the website Rose's Colored Glasses, which has an excellent (free) newsletter for writers.