All right, reviewers, here's a hastily-written article for your reviewing pleasure!
Once upon a time, I couldn't finish a draft. This is largely because I'd get stuck so easily. I'd be rolling along, scribbling down an exciting scene that I'd had in mind for a long time, and then...
Hmmm, I'd think. Obsequious isn't quite the right for this sentence.
At this point, I'd stop writing. I'd spend the next several hours, or even days, turning it over in my mind, consulting the thesaurus, Microsoft Word, and the Internet as I searched for the exact word I wanted.
You can call it writing if you want: technically speaking, I was still doing something for my current project. But that something was a waste of time. By the time I came up with the word I meant, I'd lost several days of actually moving the story along - not to mention the fact that I'd exerted so much time and energy perfecting a sentene that would likely, in revision, be cut.
Therein lies the problem with trying to write a perfect first draft. Can you perfect each individual sentence? Sure. But even if you've researched, brainstormed, outlined, drawn maps and family trees and crests, the big picture of your first draft isn't going to be perfect.
Still, this is how I used to write.
Enter NaNoWriMo.
NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, takes place in November each year. It's a month of "literary abandon," when you tie your inner editor up and lock her in a closet so you can write, write, write. The goal is to write 50,000 words of a novel in the 30 days of November. The only way that's remotely possible is not to write like I used to write.
NaNoWriMo has its detractors - namely, people who say things like, "It's pointless! You're not going to have something publishable by the end of the month. You're just going to have a big mess!"
Leaving aside the fact that not everyone writes to get published, I think these people are missing the point. NaNoWriMo teaches you to write badly - to be okay with churning out a lot, even if it's all terrible, instead of agonizing over every sentence for hours. After all, that's what revision is for: to take that chaos of a first draft and tame it.
Why should you learn to write badly? I'd argue that there are several benefits.
It lessens writer's block. The leading cause of writer's block, for me, has always been "this isn't good enough" or "this needs to be perfect." Not only in terms of single words, but entire scenes. If you have a scene in mind but delete it almost before you start writing because it's too clunky, you get nowhere. Sometimes you just have to push past the "I know this needs to happen but I don't know exactly how," the "I know how this needs to happen, but the writing is clunky and boring." Work through the pain. Accept that the writing sucks, and move on. You're going to revise this later anyway.
It gets the story down on paper. You want to get your first draft as close to perfect as you can before you revise. I get it. But you know what's awfully hard to revise? A story that isn't finished. It may take years to complete a first draft because of research, brainstorming, outlining, depression, or changes that require retooling before you move on. That's fine.
It shouldn't take years because you're spending more time looking for that perfect word that says exactly what you mean than actually getting the story written down.
It lets you dedicate more energy to the big picture than the mechanics. Mechanics are important. Proofreading and editing with an eye for style, voice, and syntax have their place, but it's not the first draft. Generally, with a first draft, you're going to end up rewriting a lot of what you wrote anyway. Scenes don't make sense. You forgot to foreshadow that plot twist. A character acts inconsistent throughout the story.
Given that you're going to have to go back and fix a lot of big picture things, you're going to end up cutting most of those perfect sentences you wrote. Which is a huge bummer, first of all, and signifies a lot of wasted time and energy. Don't start small and go big - start big and go small. Pin down your plot and characters, the threads of your various subplots. Once those are solid, go in and fix the scenes - the fight scene that's too clunky or over too quickly, the setting that isn't described adequately. Then worry about your sentence length and structure, that paragraph break being after one line instead of another, that synonym for "obsequious" that you just couldn't come up with before.
This isn't to say you can't make any improvements at all while drafting. If I feel like a scene isn't going well, I might scrap it and start over. Maybe I decided that something that occurred earlier in the story should have happened differently, so I go back and make brief revisions so that things are consistent with this new development.
But I no longer fall into the trap of trying to make my writing perfect on the first try.
It can be hard to keep going when you feel like you're a terrible writer, but I've become really adept at this. Nothing's ever done so much to help me finish a first draft. NaNoWriMo isn't for everyone, and that's okay. But all writers should learn the lesson of writing badly.
This is a gem that I thoroughly needed at the moment. I get so technical and cling to planning for dear life because I'm too uncertain to actually start long projects haha. It's breaking the habit of perfectionism that I find the most challenging. You're a star, Blue ~
I'm a huge proponent of writing badly on first drafts, so any time you feel that perfectionism creeping up and need someone to shout, "IT'S A FIRST DRAFT CALM DOWN THAT'S WHAT REVISION IS FOR," I'm you're girl.
Hi, BlueAfrica. Review time and take this out of the Green Room in honor of Review Day c:
Once upon a time, I couldn't finish a draft.
This is excellent advice, Blue -- and although I don't really write prose, I've found what you're talking about really useful for essay writing. I had a professor who always said, don't be afraid to write a really crummy first-draft. Self-Editing sometimes takes out your best ideas, before they have any chance to see the light. Great points here, it might make a neat article for the Knowledge Base actually.
Hey there! Lake here for another good review, hoping to get my team a gold medal! So, I think you picked a good topic to write about. Especially since this year will be my first time participating in the NaNoWriMo contest.
So as I bean to read it, I think that at first, I thought that you were going to explain what you went through when you tried to find the perfect word, other than obsequious. But as I read more into this article, I found that you were actually going to explain how to write a good bad first draft for the NaNoWriMo contest.
I think that your reasons were very helpful, considering that anyone new could consider these tips. Let's discuss the first tip: It lessens Writer's Block.
This tip got me to thinking, I can relate to this. Every time I've written a poem, or a chapter of novel, I've always found that I can't think, that I'm always focused on something other than that poem, or story. And eventually, I can't think of good words to rhyme with, or how to describe what I feel. But reading through this, I think I found a cure to my writer's block! And it seems to prove useful! You provide some useful advice in this tip, like pushing past the "I know this needs to happen, but I don't know how", and the "I know this needs to happen but the writing is clunky and boring" parts. Work through it, accepting that it sucks, and then move on. That really got to me, to be honest, because I think that this very true, when you write, and you know something isn't write (Get it!?XD), you just need to continue writing, trying to find a way to fix it after you finish that draft. You just have to move on and then deal with it later, focus on just the draft you're working on. So, this tip is very important to follow when writing for NaNoWriMo.
Now, the next tip: It Gets the Story Down On Paper.
This tip is also very important! What I found when I read this tip was that a lot of writers may not realize that they should try to get the first draft as close to perfect before revising it, so that way it doesn't take "years" as you put it, to revise it or think of a good word. And you're certainly right! It should NOT take years just to write that first draft from brainstorming, researching, depression, all the actors that contribute to writing a novel. It should only take a little while, not a year, a few months, maybe a week, possibly even a couple days. You shouldn't have to waste precious time on just one or two less important things. You should focus on just the draft and nothing else. So this tip is also very important to follow, so great job!
Now, the very last tip: It Lets You Dedicate More Energy To The Big Picture Then The Mechanics.
So the last tip, is not only long, but provides great advice. First of all, you said that with a first draft, you're gonna end up rewriting scenes, maybe you forgot to foreshadow the plot twist, or even realizing that the character isn't consistent. Which factor a great deal in the second draft, because this happens a lot with writers, even the big writers, like Cassandra Clare. We all know that these great writers don't get their story in the first draft! 
You also said that when you end up rewriting the first draft, you'll end up cutting most of the perfect sentences you wrote. Which absolutely true! I was actually working on a draft right now, I finished the first draft a long time ago and yet, the great sentences I write, I ended up getting rid of them because I needed to fix something else that was near it. And it's best not to do that because those sentences could provide great detail to a certain subject, or it could provide the imagery that everyone looks for in a novel. So you are most definitely right when you say that it's a HUGE bummer. You say that you shouldn't start small and go big, but start big and go small. This made me slightly confused because I had no idea what you meant, but then I realized later on when you gave this advice that you meant that instead of being really, really closed off when first starting to write, and then just opening up like a flower! Cause that just isn't a very good story to read, you start big, making it seem good to read, and then you go small, keeping it interesting to read.
I think we can agree that's what all great writers would do!XD
Anyway, I think you did well, I thought that the beginning was very creative and relatable, and that the rest of this article was very legit. I think that all writers, great or small, should read this and follow your advice! You provide us with great advice that can help us a lot when writing a novel and it also gives slight humor in the beginning!
I can't wait to hear more form you in the future! So keep up the fantastical work! Have a wonderful rest of your day!
~ Lake 
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