Reminders for writing the first draft

In a flash of frustration with myself today I sat down and typed out all the things I need to remember when I'm writing the first draft.

I'm now writing my third book – you can see the progress meters on the right hand side, and it is going very well. But this morning I felt tired, sluggish and fretful about work and all of that began to crush the real me who is usually desperate to get to the page. Hence the frustration, hence this list of things I need to keep telling myself again and again when these doubts and general lethargy hit.

Remember

You have complete permission to write a terrible first draft.

Mood is not required to write, your presence is.

When it just won't flow, step back, have a cup of tea, but don't use it as an excuse to stop.

You will never know whether it is good or not. Just write the damn thing.

Don't write for anyone else but you. It's hard enough to know what you want, let alone all of them too.

There's no such thing as no time to write.

Writer's block comes in many sizes and many flavours. There is a cure for each one.

Start writing at least fifteen minutes before you sit down to put the words on the page.

The first draft is not the place to fret or polish, get the story down first.

Listen to the characters.

Be brave, but remember, it's just putting one word down after another. The real heroes are in Editing Land.

Stop reading this and write!

—

Does this resonate, fellow writers? Are these the same things you tell yourself or have learnt after many hundreds of hours of slog? Do you have any to add? Are there any that surprise you, or just don't make any sense?

Do you think this list might help you? I've printed mine out and put it on the wall. If you want to do the same, I made a PDF version for you that's much easier to print out than a blog post.

I hasten to add that I am not an expert, nor am I doing this in the hope of passing myself off as one. These are just things that work for me, and I hope they might help you too.