A dirty draft is a ‘thing’.
Apparently, I’m the last to find out. I’ve started writing a new story and naturally, took my first scratching’s to read out at my writers' group.
Bad move.
Questions, questions and more questions. I wasn’t ready for that level of scrutiny.
Days later, quite coincidently, a fellow writer shared a fantastic blog post by Monique Mulligan, Overcoming Writer’s Block with a Dirty Draft and as I read, I had an ‘Aha’ moment - I’m immersed in the magnificent mess of a dirty draft right now!
Years ago, when I first began writing, there was no editing, feedback or writers' group in my life. I wrote whatever jumped into my head.
Mulligan quotes Author Nikki Moore who describes exactly what a dirty draft is:
… a raw first draft that is full of plot holes and peppered with spelling and grammar mistakes and it doesn’t matter…
Quite obviously, a writers' group is not the right audience for a dirty draft.
This dirty draft will be (for me) like learning to ride a unicycle – a lot of mad pedaling back and forward before I get control of that wheel.
Fun, a little freaky and frightening. But in the end (and during), very fulfilling.
The only voices giving feedback and telling me what to do, for now, should be me and of course my story’s characters.
It’s only a dirty draft after all!