5 Tips on Writing the First Draft of A Novel

A pulsing cursor on a blank screen. Fingers hovering over the keyboard. Ideas swilling around your head. Where. To. Start?

Writing the first draft of a novel is tricksy. But here's a few things I've learned as I plough into the first draft of my twelfth novel.

1. YOU DON'T NEED TO START WRITING YOUR FIRST DRAFT AT THE BEGINNING.

Start with the bit you feel like writing. Could be the end. Could be a scene in the middle. Could be a bit of dialogue. Just start writing. No one will know the order you wrote the darn thing when it comes to publishing.

2. SOD THE SPELLING. PAH TO PUNCTUATION.

It's more important to get ideas down at this stage rather than have accurate spelling and beautiful punctuation. That can come later. Going back to correct stuff can slow the flow of ideas, and it’s ideas that are important at this stage, not accuracy. Get something down on paper or screen even if the spelling is weoful.

3. DON'T EXPECT MUCH OF THE FIRST DRAFT TO MAKE THE FINAL CUT.

Writing is rewriting someone more talented than I once said. First drafts are there to be bettered, expanded upon, get the red pen treatment. It's the foundation of your novel. Sure, some of the story you write here will make the final draft, (or maybe it won’t). But you'll say it better in subsequent drafts. This is the skeleton. The bare bones. The first layer. Don't worry about how bad it is. It's a start.

4. IT'S GOING TO BE MESSY.

All over the place. You might not know exactly how your story is going to pan out at this stage. You don't need to. This first draft isn't going to get published. You just need to know the sort of story you want to write, and a rough idea of how it starts and ends. Whether this is how your story will actually start and end, well that's likely to change.

5. WRITE THE BLURB AFTER EVERY DRAFT.

It's a great way to hone your story. Once, after I thought I'd finished writing my novel, I wrote a blurb that told a better story than the one I'd actually written. So I went back and rewrote the story to fit the blurb! The book was better for it. You're going to have to write a blurb at some point. Doing it as you go along is a really good exercise, and a good way to avoid the “oh no, I’ve got to summarise this 100,000 word masterpiece into a 200 words” grim reality once you’ve finished.

JON LYMON is the author of 11 novels that all started off messy. Some say they ended that way too.

(Please note I haven’t said anything about writing a GOOD first draft of a novel, as putting myself in the bracket of being an expert in the matter would be an exaggeration.)