Let me Write A First Draft

I have been dreaming of writing a book, well many books since I started blogging in 2016. The genre is non-fiction of course. I have dreamt. And Dreamt. But, I have never started.

I love blogging for the instant feedback you get.

I am not the best writer, editor, or reader. I get too excited to hit publish and have it out in the world.

I have dreamt and dreamt. But, something always held me back, fear, worry, not good enough. Oh my mind – will you just let me get on with writing the first draft; at least start the process!

Finally I have decided I will just write my first draft in the month of July 2020 (as part of camp NaNoWriMo). I have a few ideas for the book.

I will write it out long hand, as I have no clue of structure. I have a few topic headings but no meat on the bones.

Is part of writing a first draft – research? It feels to me, it has to be for me. As I don’t have enough ideas in my head to fill out the topic headings.

Do I call it a first draft? Or a first discovery draft? Does it even matter?

I feel that I just need to write the first draft. The book may never get published, it may lead to other ideas for books. Or it might get published (self published). But, if I don’t start; I will never start and I will never know.

I looked up some articles on outlining for non-fiction (click here), and on first drafts. Two articles said, there will be jewels in the draft (click here), there will be usable bits. But, I also read that as a writer you gotta write a lot of bad stuff first. This is useful advice to calm the nerves.

As well as my affirmations – I CAN DO THIS. No one will see it but me! I will really get into this and enjoy it. It will be a success.

Most of you, my dear blogger friends are accomplished published authors of either one or several books. Oh gosh, how did you do it? I am so nervous. I feel the book idea is a flop already and it has been covered better by others. And I have talked about it in my blog.

I would be so grateful to you for any advise you can give me. As this my first ever book, my first every draft.

Here is my notebook (from Sainsbury’s) for my first draft.

I think the way I am going to attack this is, to do the research and write at the same time. This is how I attacked my University project (20+ years ago). Is this even a first draft or just plain brainstorming. Whatever, it is, it is a start.

Goal is by End of July 2020 I want a rough/ first draft written. Then I can work on a decent first draft, etc.

Below is my Index of what I have done so far.

See I have a section called ” Hopes, Worries , Fears of writing this book”. Oh my I need a place to write out what I feel, so I thought I would capture it in the same notebook.

I must say I rather like my notebook from Sainsbury’s. And I am glad I have decided to write old school pen and paper. I think a blank word document would be not be the right tool at this stage. Old school feels comfortable.

I would be so grateful to those of you who have done this before to give me some advise. Oh I need it. I am also going to write weekly-ish updates, so I stay accountable to you all. Initially, I was not going to write a blog post on this, and just get on with it quietly. But, I need your support. And I need some accountability. I am not bother by word count. I am more interested in content, ideas and the message. Let me know if the idea is a good one or should I think of something else.

The message, you guessed it is ” Thoughts and Life” how they impact our life and the easy ways to win.

So wish me luck. Thank you in advance