A Word of Writerly Encouragement

Draft One

Pen to paper

But the words won't flow

Dialogue gone awry—

Ugh, where'd my pencil go?

Found it, okay

Now buckle down and write

But scenes won't fit

Will I ever get this right?

Disappointment heavy

And I don't like this scene

Supposed to be epic

But I just want to scream!

Thoughts are whirling

Can't quit, but I'm so done

Step back and remember:

This is just draft one.

—

Sometimes, we can become so easily bogged down in our writing, disappointed with how our writing doesn’t quite reflect the epic story that we held in our imagination. It’s something I struggled with recently as I have been working through the rough draft of my own manuscript. In short, I just wasn’t as happy with it as I wanted to be. I had to take a step back and remind myself, “this is just draft one. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Just tell the story, and worry about polishing it later.” This poem came out of that. It’s not my usual style of poetry, but it seems fitting. I hope it may be an encouragement to you.

- Auriel