I recently read your newsletter on your drafting process (I actually read multiple updates in your newsletter…. But I digress). I have a question about updrafts. Can you explain (maybe with a fake example) the difference between the updrafts and down drafts? I get the core difference. But I’ve been trying this approach, first, getting the words down. And then me being the constant editor that I am, when I can, I go to tweak my work and I’m not sure if I should then label it an updraft. I’m not necessarily proud of the edits or at least not a hundred percent sold on them. So would that particular chapter still be a down draft? Or am I overthinking this? Lol.
(anon is referring to this issue of my newsletter.)
if you're editing while you're writing, then you're skipping straight to the up draft. sometimes that can happen if you have a scene very clearly rendered in your head and manage to write it in a way you're happy with off the bat. for me, that's somewhat rare, but it happens.
where that becomes a problem is when you force yourself to up draft by being unable to stop self-editing. a lot of writers have this problem, because many people only understand writing as rough draft and final draft, where the final draft is more or less a proofread. you have to train yourself out of that by learning how to write in different ways. down drafting is its own skill, the ability to tell yourself, DON'T THINK JUST WRITE AAAAAAAA.
an activity you can do to develop that skill is what i call the No Backspace Freewrite. to do this, you need to set a timer for 3 minutes. during those 3 minutes your goal is to type constantly the entire time (no pausing! none!) without hitting the backspace key, even if what you type ends up being "i don't know what to type i'm just figuring out what to say what i want to say is..." then you take a break and set the timer for 5 minutes. the first few times you do this activity, you probably won't come up with anything good. but as you do it more, you'll start to find sentences and phrases that make you go, "oh that's pretty good, i can keep that."
and once you get really comfortable finding a single sentence or phrase amid hundreds of useless words, it becomes a lot easier to turn your self-editor off and down draft without skipping immediately to the up draft. basically, you have to teach yourself how to flip the switch of your inner self-editor.
i'm hoping to write part 3 of my "how to write a novel" series on revision soon, which will hopefully offer more insight. the SFD process is only how you get to a first draft. my revision process (which involves discrete, actionable tasks and activities because in my heart i am and will always be an english teacher) will help give a greater scope so that the distance between down-up-dental isn't as wide as it seems to be.
