or, The Power of Writing Nothing - Writing a First Draft is too much pressure! Zero Draft gives you the freedom to explore your creativity. Here's how!
A great idea - I remember Richard Wagamese saying something similar when I attended a workshop of his years ago. He told us to pick a random topic and write about it until we started to "think". Once we started thinking, the creativeness stopped and it wasn't worth continuing. He suggested we do this every day for a month and see how our writing progressed. I think this is similar to your zero draft idea - write without thinking.
At first, I thought I would say I can't write a zero draft because of my perfectionist streak and just knowing that I'm going to read it back to myself and want it to be coherent. But then I realized that for novels I DO have something like a zero draft. I call it a "story storm" or something like that. It usually amounts to about 10 pages of notes on characters and potential storyline, and it almost reads back like a casual story you might tell a friend at a bar. A lot of "this happens and then this happens." The best thing about it is that once I start writing the novel, I don't ever go back to the story storm. I'm a pantser and have learned to trust it when the story goes off the rails. When I've finished a "first draft" I'll go back and read the story storm and usually have a good laugh at how far the story strayed from the original notes. But sometimes I'll note a few places that I stayed true to my original idea nuggets.
I've never tried to write a zero draft for short stories. That would take practice on my part. I've used your EFF method once or twice to good effect. But usually, I just write when the writings good and if it's not there I distract myself for 10 minutes to a day until it is there again.
✍️ Zero Draft Writing
A great idea - I remember Richard Wagamese saying something similar when I attended a workshop of his years ago. He told us to pick a random topic and write about it until we started to "think". Once we started thinking, the creativeness stopped and it wasn't worth continuing. He suggested we do this every day for a month and see how our writing progressed. I think this is similar to your zero draft idea - write without thinking.
At first, I thought I would say I can't write a zero draft because of my perfectionist streak and just knowing that I'm going to read it back to myself and want it to be coherent. But then I realized that for novels I DO have something like a zero draft. I call it a "story storm" or something like that. It usually amounts to about 10 pages of notes on characters and potential storyline, and it almost reads back like a casual story you might tell a friend at a bar. A lot of "this happens and then this happens." The best thing about it is that once I start writing the novel, I don't ever go back to the story storm. I'm a pantser and have learned to trust it when the story goes off the rails. When I've finished a "first draft" I'll go back and read the story storm and usually have a good laugh at how far the story strayed from the original notes. But sometimes I'll note a few places that I stayed true to my original idea nuggets.
I've never tried to write a zero draft for short stories. That would take practice on my part. I've used your EFF method once or twice to good effect. But usually, I just write when the writings good and if it's not there I distract myself for 10 minutes to a day until it is there again.
Sorry Graham, but I’m a “barf it out” guy. Did it just yesterday afternoon, old fashioned in hand, which helped.
My definition of zero draft is when I publish my first draft itself with zero edits. I must admit, I do this with a worrying frequency. 😅