"‘The first draft is just you telling yourself the story.’ —Terry Pratchett These are..."

“‘The first draft is just you telling yourself the story.’

—Terry Pratchett

 

These are the words I remind myself of when I feel like a draft has lost all aim and focus. A final project needs to be tight and trim; the initial draft can be loose and gloriously messy.

 

Give yourself permission to explore, even if it may not serve your eventual end goal. Drafting is the time to wander the world. You might info-dump, you might create an irrelevant tangent, you might create contradictory scenes. That’s all okay! The process is important in its own right.”

-

Cass Morris works as a writer and educator in central Virginia, and she occasionally moonlights as a bookseller in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. She completed her Master of Letters at Mary Baldwin University in 2010, and she earned her undergraduate degree, a BA in English with a minor in history, from the College of William and Mary in 2007. She reads voraciously, wears corsets voluntarily, and will beat you at MarioKart. Her debut novel, From Unseen Fire: Book One of the Aven Cycle, is a Roman-flavored historical fantasy released by DAW Books. Follow @CassRMorris on Twitter.

Your Camp Care Package is brought to you by Camp NaNoWriMo. Sign up to receive more Camp Care Packages at campnanowrimo.org.