Face It, Your First Draft Is Terrible [First published July 10, 2021]

One quick way to end your writing progress is to to be unaware that your first draft will be terrible. There are two potential things that will happen when you don't realize this before you start. First, when you are writing your draft, you'll realize how terrible it is. As a result, you will either convince yourself that you aren't a good writer and quit, or you'll spend all your time trying to fix what you have written rather than just continuing to write down your thoughts. This leads you to never completing your draft because of perfectionism. Let me give you some advice that applies to every area of life, but especially to writing your first draft: Done is better than perfect! As writers, we tend to compare our initial drafts to the books we have read, which already had been written, re-written, edited, re-written again, edited again, put in fancy formatting, proofed, and marketed. Of course those books are better than your first draft! But because of perfectionism, we don't want to continue writing the first draft until we go back and make everything previously written perfect. We want it to be like an edited gem that receives nothing but compliments from editors. We make it a goal to have our editor say, "Wow! This is perfect. Your message has nothing that I would change, your grammar is spotless, and I would really want to buy your book as is." That is not going to happen, so don't bother perfecting your first draft until you finish your first draft. Realize this: everyone's first draft stinks. The second thing that could happen when you don't expect your first draft to be terrible, is that you truly believe your first draft is the best thing ever written. It can't possibly be improved because it is written from the heart, so any suggested changes from an editor is an insult. You think things like, "He obviously doesn't understand 'the voice' that part was written in!" or "She doesn't understand the importance of that part she wants to cut!" Thinking your first draft is more or less perfect is a great way to end up getting stuck in the editing process, or if you move on, you just self-publish a terribly written book. I highly suggest writing down your thoughts all the way through a first draft or at least through the chapter. Then go back, consider what you can change, make a second draft, and afterwards get it edited by someone else. This helps you put down your message when it is fresh in your brain without worrying about it being perfect. It then allows you go back and present your message the best way you can. After that, you must get another person's input and take their advice. To demonstrate this point, I want to end my blog with an example. Below is a section of the final draft and rough draft (or earliest draft I could find) of my book, Idle Words. As you will see, there are some clear changes from the original, and yes, I did mess up the Ten Commandments in my first draft. Remember, the first draft is always terrible. But you will also notice how the basic message remained the same. That is the point of the first draft: to write down the basic message of your book. So enjoy reading the example, but most importantly learn from it. Your first draft does not have to be perfect, so keep writing until it is finished. Also note the bigger change, in the final draft, this was part of the second chapter, while in the original, this was part of the first chapter. Final Draft: The word gospel means good news. The Bible simply and clearly states what is required for mankind to go to Heaven. However, before you can grasp how good the good news is, you must understand the bad news. Romans 3:23 states, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” The fact that we are sinners who fall short of the glory of God is the first part of the bad news. Most people do not have trouble admitting that they have done something wrong. Yet, I have talked with a couple of people who actually thought they were perfect. They thought that they had never done anything that displeased God. Just in case you are like either of these people, I will prove to you that you are not perfect. I will prove that the word all in Romans 3:23 includes you. This is crucial because Christ came to save sinners, not perfect people. The book of 1 John was written to believers: people who were already saved from their sin. In the first chapter of this book, John deals specifically with the fact that saved people still sin. He also discusses confessing sin, which I will expound on more in chapter 5. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. 1 John 1:8‑10 In these verses, John is telling born-again (saved) people that if they say they do not sin, they are deceiving themselves. People cannot achieve perfection because they have a sin nature from the moment of conception until death. To prove we are sinners, God gave us His Law. He gave us many laws, but we will only look at ten of them. These ten laws are known as the Ten Commandments. There are many people who claim you must obey the Ten Commandments in order to go to Heaven. Most of them probably can’t even name the Ten Commandments, but they assume that they are obeying all ten. Here is the list so you can see for yourself whether you have obeyed all ten of them. You can find them in Exodus 20. 1. Thou shalt have no other gods before Me. 2. Thou shalt not make nor bow down and worship graven images. 3. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. 4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 5. Honor thy father and thy mother. 6. Thou shalt not kill. 7. Thou shalt not commit adultery. 8. Thou shalt not steal. 9. Thou shalt not bear false witness. 10. Thou shalt not covet. Have you obeyed all ten? I can tell you from God’s Word that you have not. The only one to ever have obeyed all ten was Jesus Christ who was fully God and fully man. God gave the Law, and no one has ever been able to obey it. When Jesus was on earth, He explained the Law a step further to show the impossibility of keeping the Law. Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. …Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. Matthew 5:21-22; 27-28 We are so incapable of keeping the Law. If I asked your parents or your teachers from your childhood, I promise that they would not say you were always truthful. When you lied, you broke one of the Ten Commandments. When you coveted something that someone else had, you broke one of the Ten Commandments. For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. James 2:10 Every one of us, according to the Bible, is guilty violating the entire Law. This is the seriousness of the statement, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” I hope you realize that you are a sinner. As I stated earlier, Jesus came to save sinners, not perfect people. When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Mark 2:17 (emphasis mine) Rough Draft: The gospel, which means good news, actually starts with bad news, and the news gets worse before it gets better. Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” Now most people do not have trouble admiting that they have done something wrong. In fact, I can only think of two people I have talked to who have thought they were perfect. But just in case you are like those two people, I will prove to you that you are not perfect. The book of I John was written to people who were already saved. In I John chapter 1, it deals specifically with the fact that saved people still sin. It also talks about confessing our sin, which I will explain more thoroughly in Chapter 3. I John 1:8-10 says, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” Here, John is telling born-again people that if they say they do not sin, they are deceiving themselves. People cannot somehow achieve perfection because we have a sin nature that is in us from the day we are conceived to the day we die. To prove we are sinners, God gave us His law. He has many, many laws, but we will just look at what we know as the Ten Commandments. Now, I don’t know how many people have told me that they are going to heaven because they obey the Ten Commandments. Honestly, most of them could not name the Ten Commandments. Here is the list for you so you can see if you have honestly obeyed all Ten Commandments.

1. Thou shalt not make any graven image.

2. Thou shalt not bow down or worship graven images.

3. Thou Shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.

4. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

5. Honor thy father and thy mother.

6. Thou shalt not kill.

7. Thou shalt not commit adultery.

8. Thou shalt not steal.

9. Thou shalt not bear false witness.

10. Thou shalt not covet.

Jesus says that if you have ever lusted after another man’s wife, you have committed adultery in your heart. If you have ever hated, you have commited murder in your heart. Can you honestly say that you have never lied? I could just ask your parents or teachers and find a different answer. I know that you cannot say you have never coveted. Now, the clincher is in the book of James. “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” (James 2:10). Later in James 4:17, it says, “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” I hope that example helps you as a writer, and I pray that message shows you your need for a Savior. Joel Collison is the founder of Now Written Christian Books and an editor and coach for aspiring authors through Authorize.