Draft One… Draft Two… Draft Three…

When do you let other people see your work? It’s vulnerable, like you’re baring a piece of yourself to someone. There’s a level of trust in giving up that part of yourself to potential scrutiny.

You can talk yourself out of even starting your project to begin with, or be stuck in the infinite loop of “not good enough… yet.”

“One more pass through… and THEN someone can read it.”

STOP. RIGHT. THERE.

Let me introduce you to the idea that changed my own writing practice:

DRAFT ZERO.

I didn’t come up with this idea, but, oh, how it changed my writing life!

Draft Zero has no rules. Draft Zero can be as bad or as good as you want. Draft Zero can be a bunch of words that don’t make sense together with notes sprinkled in like “INTRODUCE THIS IDEA SOONER,” or a list of bullet points to flesh out on a second pass, or just a simple X when you aren’t sure what to put down at the moment.

Draft Zero is where you just get the ideas down. No pressure, no one has to look at it, it doesn’t have to be perfect (or even readable!) — Draft Zero is where the progress happens.

Allow yourself a Draft Zero. And if you want someone to look at it, I’d be happy to help.

Write your book. Write your story. Write your paper. Just WRITE.

Let the world see what you’ve got.