5 Major Tips For Finishing Your First Draft
From a writer who has written thousands of articles & published 6 books.
--
The hardest part of writing anything — a short story, a novel, a nonfiction book, heck, even an article — is finishing it.
Ideas are easy! I have potentially good ideas a million times each week.
But actually sitting down and writing an entire book or any other piece of writing is much more difficult.
Sometimes you aren’t inspired or in the mood to write. Sometimes that blank page taunts you.
I have written and published 6 books, thousands of articles, and helped dozens of authors finish their first drafts.
Here are my top 5 tips for digging in and getting that project written.
#1. Write down the idea ASAP
Jot it down somewhere. I often use the notes app on my phone to record my basic idea just to have it written somewhere before later transferring my notes to my idea document. Then when thinking about what to write, reference your notes to see what you thought about.
It is also a good idea to have something like a Word doc or Google doc that has a list of your ideas. I have one doc for blog post/article ideas and another with full book ideas.
I use the document to flesh out the ideas a little at a time or even outline the whole thing. I love having all my ideas and notes to myself in one place.
#2. Outline it fully
Once you decide on an idea, create an outline.
An outline is so important!
Having a solid outline before starting the piece (especially a book) is critical to making sure you are giving all of the intended information, conveying the message you want, and staying on track during the writing process.
