In a battle against myself tonight. This is a reminder. Maybe someone else needs it too?
I am going to write an absolutely terrible first draft, and I’m not going to apologize for it.
The characters will be inconsistent, the exposition will be bare-faced, the details will be absent, and the climax will be boring.
I won’t care.
I will neglect the setting. I will force the dialogue. I will let the characters do whatever the hell they want.
It doesn’t matter.
I will use cliches. I will info-dump. I will rely on stereotypes.
It’s all right.
Because it’s a first draft.
All that matters is that I put words onto pages. Every day. Bad ones. Lots of adverbs. And the word nice. The phrase “nicely nice.” All of it in passive tense.
I will be kind to myself and to my first draft. I will let it get its way. I will baby it and baby myself.
But you’d better believe that once…
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JACKIE LEA SOMMERS 
Thank you! I did – I do!
As a matter of fact, I printed it out (with proper credit and everything) and posted it on my refrigerator.
Joined NaNo this month. What was I thinking?! I have a 4-day grand total of 2481 words written since Nov. 1. I’m pretty sure I was ‘supposed’ to do that on the first day. I get in my way and…you know how it goes. Thank you again for this – you are wonderfully full of sage advice. I am comforted to know I’m not the only one struggling with this artistic beast. And knowledge is power – right? 😉
You’re so sweet and such a great encourager!