From Edie: Miriah Taverna shares how to overcome perfectionism when writing your first draft, stop editing as you go, and make steady progress toward finishing your manuscript.
How to Write Your First Draft Without Letting Perfectionism Stop You
by Miriah Taverna
One of my old mentors used to say, “Done is better than perfect.” That phrase doesn’t work for a lot of things in life, but I believe it most definitely can be applied when it comes to writing the first draft of your book.
As Christian writers, of course we want to do everything with excellence and to the glory of God. These are good desires, but sometimes perfectionism tries to sneak in and steal the show. The awesome news is that your first draft is not the place to practice perfectionism, and this realization is so freeing.
Have you ever sat down to write, only to find yourself second-guessing every sentence? You write a few lines, reread them, decide you don't like them, and start rewriting. Before you know it, a whole hour has gone by and you've barely made any progress.
I know I have.
It’s easy to put a lot of pressure on ourselves to get everything right the first time. We want the words to flow beautifully. We want our ideas to make sense. We want our chapters to be engaging and our sentences to sound just right.
And while there's absolutely nothing wrong with desiring our writing to be top-tier, we put unnecessary pressure on ourselves when we expect our first draft to look like a final draft.
Your first draft doesn’t need to be perfect. You will have plenty of opportunities to fine-tune it as you go. It’s where your book really begins, so of course it matters. But it doesn’t have to carry the weight of being your final product. So release the perfectionism pressure and allow yourself to be free to enjoy the process.
Show Up Uninspired
Enjoying the process is the goal. But let’s be honest in saying that not every part of the process will be enjoyable. Keep showing up anyway.
Motivation and excitement will come and go, but if you want to finish your book, you have to keep putting words on the page, even when you don't feel like it. Show up when you're inspired, but also show up when you're tired, distracted, or simply not feeling creative.
In James Clear’s book, Atomic Habits, he talks about the power of small habits compounding over time and how small, consistent actions can eventually lead to big results. The same principle can apply to writing. Slow progress is still progress, and it’s better than no progress at all.
Don't stop every time you don't love a sentence. If you know what you want to say, say it and keep moving. If you're unsure what you want to say, you can simply leave yourself a note in your draft that says revisit later and keep on pressing forward.
Your writing time is your writing time. Try your best to spend that time actually writing, because words that never get written can never be edited. Then, once the words are on the page you’ll be able to come back later and make them better.
Let Yourself Write Before You Edit
When you’re writing your first draft, your primary job is to get the words out of your head and onto the page. Sometimes that happens beautifully. We sit down, the words flow, and before we know it, we’ve written several pages that we’re genuinely excited about.
Other times, not so much. We hit walls, have creative blocks or brain fog, go through hard seasons of life, or simply just can’t produce words to keep the story moving forward.
This is okay, and normal, and yet another reason to give yourself a lot of grace throughout your writing process.
One of the biggest things that can slow us down as writers is trying to write and edit at the same time. Writing is about creating. Editing is about fine-tuning your creation. When you’re writing, especially your first draft, you’re figuring out what you want to say. When you’re editing, you’re looking at what you’ve already said and asking how you can make it clearer, stronger, or more impactful.
These are two very different processes.
When we stop every few sentences to perfect our wording, fix every punctuation mark, or decide whether a paragraph is good enough, it’s easy to lose our train of thought.
Sometimes the best thing we can do is leave a sentence alone and keep writing.
When I release the desire to write perfectly and just get into a good creative flow, I often find that when I revisit a particular paragraph later, I see it differently. Sometimes it works perfectly where it is. Sometimes I need to rewrite it. And sometimes I realize the entire section actually just needs to go.
TWEETABLE
After spending years lost in drug addiction, she encountered Jesus Christ in a hospital bathroom stall, and in an instant, He changed everything.
Now, her passion is to share Jesus with the world through writing, speaking, Bible teaching, and simply loving people right where they are. Her heart is to help inspire and equip others to deeply seek God for themselves and to boldly share their own stories for His glory. She also creates faith-based resources for aspiring Christian authors.
When she’s not reading, writing, or wrangling her three wild boys, you can find her on a treasure hunt at the local thrift store with an iced vanilla latte in hand. Connect with her at WWW.MIRIAHTAVERNA.COM or on social media.
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