People assume that published authors sit down and write something amazing. Like the first version is super close to the one you eventually read. It’s not. Not even a little. And I say that as someone who has now written four books. Your first draft is not supposed to be good. I don’t mean that in the “be kind to yourself” way people say it when they’re trying to make you feel better. I mean it literally. A first draft is not the book. It’s the raw material for the book. Here’s proof. My fourth book, Love, Loss & Lizard Poop, is expected out later this year. I’m super excited about it. But my first draft? It was half the book it is now. Half.
Not half as polished. Not half as edited. Half the pages. Entire stories that belong in the book didn’t exist on paper yet. Chapters that may be some of the most meaningful ones, weren’t written. Those came later, in the second and third drafts, when I finally understood in detail how to bring you, the reader, along with me. So you feel what it’s like to have been there, and hopefully form a relationship with some of the animal stars of the book. That’s the part that nobody tells you. Even if you start with an outline, which I hope you did, you don’t always know the full scope of what your book needs until you’ve written it once. The first draft is how you find out. So if you’ve ever started something and thought, “this sucks,” I want you to hear this: that feeling is part of the process, not a sign of failure. The authors who finish books aren’t the ones who write perfect the first time. They’re the ones who keep going anyway. They get the messy vomit draft down. Then they figure out what’s missing. Then they write that too. The book gets built in layers, not in one inspired pour. And this isn’t just true for books. The first version of anything, a new business, a hard conversation, a life change you’ve been circling, is allowed to be rough. The point of a first attempt isn’t to get it right. It’s to get enough down that you can see what you’re actually working with. The blank page doesn’t care how ready you are. Just start. Grab the free 7 Editing Mistakes guide: tashai.net/subscribe
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