Why I Always Write a Zero Draft
How writing a zero draft can help you conquer the blank page.
When I was in film school, my classmates and I had to produce a high volume of screenplay pages every week. Deadlines are a great way of forcing creatives to generate material, but staring at those blank pages week after week became demoralizing. Paralyzing, in fact. There was nothing I dreaded more than facing the pressure of the blinking cursor.
Enter the “zero draft.”
A zero draft isn’t a first draft. It’s not even a rough draft. It’s the document you create — whether it’s for a screenplay, a novel, an essay, or even an outline— before you actually write a draft.
A few of my classmates and I adopted the idea of writing zero drafts because we had to find a way to get to the core of our ideas faster. We didn’t have time to sit and stare at the blank page, agonizing over every word. We needed something written.
We’re not the first to coin this term, and we certainly won’t be the last. Because if you’re a writer who’s ever been stuck while staring at a blank page, zero drafts are about to change your life.
