QuillWeave

A home for writers with more ideas than finished drafts.

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Imagine this image is a scene from your story. Who is this person, and what has brought them to this moment? What are they thinking about as they sit there? What happened before this scene, and what is going to happen next?

Can you write a short passage inspired by the image.

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Somewhere in the middle of the story

Most writing advice tells us that our first draft has to be bad. Anne Lamott, in Bird by Bird, says a first draft needs to be "shitty." But what exactly is supposed to be bad about it?

Some time ago, that was exactly how I wrote. I had no plan, no story development, and no outline. Once I got an idea, I'd grab a new notebook and start writing. Then, somewhere in the middle of the story, I'd get completely lost, abandon it, and start over again. I rewrote one book about five times, filling three or four notebooks, only to crash each version and begin again. My sister would always tease me about it.

"You're rewriting the story again?"

"You don't really know what you're writing, do you?"

But like I said in an earlier post in this series, sharing my work with other writers and connecting with them changed everything. I began to learn what story development was, what plot really meant, and what actually makes a story. I started understanding things I had never even thought about before.

Through Abbie Emmons' videos, I discovered Story Genius, a book that completely changed the way I approach writing. It helped me understand the difference between a bad first draft with no direction, no purpose, and no real story, and a workable first draft that still needs editing but already has a solid foundation.

Story development is not outlining. An outline focuses on the events, the sequence of things that happen. Story development goes deeper than that. It's about the person the events are happening to.

As Lisa Cron explains in Story Genius and Will Storr in The Science of Storytelling, stories are about people: what your character wants, what stands in their way, and how they change.

As Lisa Cron puts it:

"A story is about how the things that happen affect someone in pursuit of a difficult goal, and how that person changes internally as a result."

So before we write Chapter One, we should know who our person is: their backstory, what they want, what they're afraid of, where their journey is heading. It also helps to know how the story begins and how it ends. The ending can change later, and that's fine, but having one gives every scene a direction. Everything you write is moving toward something instead of wandering around hoping to find it.

I've seen many fantasy writers fall into the trap of endless worldbuilding or developing hundreds of pages of character history. Eventually, they reach a point where they don't know how to bring all those ideas together.

That's because a story isn't about worldbuilding. It isn't about creating the most detailed history or the biggest map. Those things can enrich a story, but they aren't the story itself.

A story is usually about one person, or a small group of people, pursuing a goal while overcoming obstacles along the way. Whether they achieve that goal or not, they should be different by the end. The person who finishes the story shouldn't see the world the same way they did at the beginning.

Story is about change.

Everything else, the worldbuilding, supporting characters, settings, scenes, and subplots, should serve that journey and help bring about that change.

Of course, your first draft will still have plot holes, awkward scenes, and ideas that don't quite fit. That's normal. But if you've done the story development first, those problems are usually smaller and much easier to fix, because the draft already has direction, purpose, and meaning. Then you can trim, add, remove, and rewrite as needed.

I know what it feels like when a draft isn't working. I filled three or four notebooks finding that out the hard way, crashing the same story again and again, wondering if I even knew what I was doing. That didn't mean I wasn't a writer. It meant I hadn't done the development yet. When you truly understand what you're writing, where it's going, and why it's going there, you're far less likely to get lost in the dark forest of your first draft.

In the next post, we'll talk about another challenge many writers face: what to do when shiny new story ideas keep tempting you away from the draft you're already writing.

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Your First Draft

"You can always edit a bad page, you can't edit a blank page" - Jodi Picoult.

When it comes to writing a story that doesn't exist yet, the first step is simply making it exist. Before we can improve a story, we first have to put it on the page. Then we can explore it, experiment with it, and build its foundation.

Everything follows a process. There's no shortcut that lets you jump from a blank page to a polished masterpiece in one go. Creating a story takes multiple stages: drafting, revising, refining, and, in many cases, receiving feedback before it reaches its final version. That's why every writer needs a first draft.

When I first started writing, especially as a web novel writer, I had no idea what a draft, let alone a first draft, actually meant. But after connecting with other writers, receiving feedback, and finishing a few short stories and a novel, I realized how essential the first draft really is.

I often noticed that after publishing a chapter online, I'd suddenly think, "There should have been another scene here," or "I forgot to include this important detail." That taught me something important: finishing a first version doesn't mean the story is finished. There will almost always be something to add, remove, rearrange, or improve.

So, what exactly is a first draft?

Think of it as a blueprint, a foundation, and a place to explore your story.

Imagine you're building a house. You don't start by painting the walls or decorating the living room. First, you lay the foundation. It isn't meant to be beautiful. It's meant to support everything that comes afterward.

A first draft works the same way.

It isn't the stage for crafting beautiful prose, perfect descriptions, an impressive vocabulary, or worrying about whether you're showing instead of telling. Its purpose is much simpler than that.

The sole purpose of a foundation is to make sure the house can stand. Likewise, the sole purpose of a first draft is to make your story exist.

That first draft needs to be workable, not perfect. A solid foundation makes later improvements possible. In the same way, a workable draft gives you something you can strengthen, reshape, and refine. A workable first draft isn't about polished prose or smooth scene transitions. It's about giving yourself a complete story to improve.

Your first draft doesn't need to read like a published novel. Without it, you won't have a story to improve at all.

This is the stage where you explore your idea, discover your characters, and let your imagination spill onto the page. Give yourself permission to write imperfect sentences, awkward paragraphs, and even a few inconsistencies. Right now, you're creating something that didn't exist before.

Many aspiring writers mistake the first draft for the stage where everything must already be perfect, flawless, and ready for others to read.

But here's the truth:

Your first draft is for you.

It isn't meant for readers yet. It's where you explore your world, understand your characters, and transfer the story from your imagination onto the page.

Once you've done that, you finally have something you can improve. You can polish sentences, strengthen descriptions, deepen emotions, fix plot holes, and apply everything you've learned about writing. Only then do you have a canvas worth painting.

So, how do you write a workable first draft?

That's what we'll be talking about in the next post of this series.

We'll begin with one of the biggest obstacles writers face: the messy middle of the first draft.

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Community Talk: Is Raw Talent Overrated?

One of the best conversations on QuillWeave this week came out of a simple question: is raw talent overrated?

The answer our members kept circling back to, in different words: talent can give you a head start, but it doesn't carry you to the finish line.

A few things members shared that stuck with me —

One member talked about how learning the actual craft of writing became more valuable the longer they wrote, more than any natural ability they started with.

Another said it was years of practice, not raw talent, that they ended up being proud of.

A third pointed out that consistency, lived experience, and just showing up over time are what really shape a writer — more than whatever "gift" they were born with.

It's a good reminder: writing isn't reserved for people who came out of the womb gifted. Like any creative skill, it can be learned, practiced, and built — one draft at a time.

So if you've ever caught yourself wondering "am I really a writer?" — here's your answer: if you have the passion to tell stories, and you're willing to keep learning, you're already on the journey.

💙 — QuillWeave