STAGE 03

Writing the Draft

Get the words down

The messy, glorious, terrifying act of writing your first draft. Strategies for maintaining momentum, finding your voice, and silencing your inner editor.

ARTICLES IN THIS STAGE
Writing Your First Draft: Permission to Be Terrible

Your first draft doesn't need to be good - it needs to exist. Learn practical strategies for overcoming perfectionism, building momentum, and knowing when your draft is done enough to revise.

10 min read Read article →
KEY CONCEPTS

Glossary terms for this stage

Action Beat

A character's physical action placed near dialogue to show who's speaking without using a ...

Active Voice

A sentence construction where the subject performs the action, producing direct, clear pro...

Adventure

Fiction driven by physical action, exploration, danger, and the protagonist's journey thro...

Allegory

A story where the characters, events, and setting represent something larger - a political...

Allusion

A brief, indirect reference to something outside your story - a book, a myth, a historical...

Anaphora

Repeating the same word or phrase at the start of consecutive sentences or clauses to buil...

Anecdote

A short, self-contained account of a specific incident, usually told to illustrate a point...

Anthology

A curated collection of works by multiple authors, usually organized around a shared theme...

Antihero

A protagonist who lacks traditional heroic qualities like nobility, idealism, or moral cou...

As You Know, Bob

Dialogue where characters awkwardly tell each other things they both already know, purely ...

Authorial Voice

The unique style, personality, and sensibility that a writer carries across all their work...

Blocking

The physical movements and positioning of characters within a scene - where they stand, si...

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