My Writing Process (part two)- the First Draft

Though my journey started with inspiration and ended with even more of it, a ton of work had to go in along the way. Here is how my ideas got turned into the first-ever draft of Moonbound, through many struggles.

This was one of the very few stories that stayed in my head and kept evolving, and that put me to sleep at night thinking it through. I didn't even notice I was still clinging to the story until many months later I compared what was in my head now to the notes I had first scribbled down, and laughed. I decided to start plotting things out again, and make more sense of the story.

This eventually came together into the very haphazardous draft number one, 97 pages of terribly cringy writing that I still won't get over to this day. At that point in the story, I hit a small roadblock, and I decided I needed to completely rewrite the whole thing. I hated what I had already at that point, and thought there was no other option. I hadn't learned that that was just a part of the process yet. I thought there was something wrong with the fundamental bits of my story, and that was why it didn't work perfectly.

Which is why my biggest tip is that no matter if you think your story is something that no one has done before, or that it doesn't follow the rules of your genre, or you just think it doesn't make sense for a world to be like this, you should never stop writing it. Being different is what makes every story special, and a hundred times better! I've had so many moments of self-doubt where I didn't believe that stories were supposed to work that way, before finally realizing that however it ended up working was the right way, because anything is perfect as long as it comes from your own heart. And the moment I realized that, my writer's block faded, my doubt shifted, and a whole lot of weight was been lifted off of my shoulders. Remember that! No story has to be a specific way. No story has to be anything at all. All it needs to be is yours.

I didn't understand that at the time, and it led to some serious self-doubt issues. In the end, everything worked out, but it is only because of the strength and support of my friends and family that I kept going after that major letdown. This is why it is so important to have people support you along the way, through as many drafts as you need, to talk you through ideas and struggles, and to just be there for the ride. Whether you can find that in your family, your friend group, or a community of writers online is up to what you have available and what you're comfortable doing, but trust me when I say it makes all the difference to open up. Because of all the help I had, I was able to turn draft one into something better- something I'll get into in the next blog post!!