How to Write a Draft Zero (and Silence Your Inner Editor)| Reedsy Live

Bestselling Author S J Watson shows you how to shut out your inner editor and get your first draft finished.
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MORE FROM S J WATSON
Substack: sjwatson.substack.com/p/welco...
S J Watson is the bestselling author of BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP, which became a phenomenal international success and was turned into a film starring Nicole Kidman, Colin Firth and Mark Strong. He has since published two further psychological thrillers, SECOND LIFE and FINAL CUT, and has recently set up THE WRITERS’ LODGE, which aims to help and support writers at every stage of their creative writing journey.
S J Watson is about to embark on a public novel writing project called THE EXPERIMENT, which will see him write and publish his own draft zero of a novel on Substack. A new chapter will be released every two weeks, with specific themes, locations, and character names voted for by his online followers. Join Steve on his journey and experience the frustrations and breakthroughs of novel writing - in real-time.

[@sariahsue]

"A page of bad writing is better than 100 pages of no writing." Loved that!

[@tbyers31]

Love this. My draft zero is handwritten in spiral notebooks with a favorite pen. Handwriting keeps the temptation to edit on a keyboard somewhat at bay.

[@michellethornton7926]

So many valuable gems. I always write better with a candle and/or soft lighting. It’s a thing! Another great talk.

[@lauracairns7482]

I think this is one of Reedsy's most useful and interesting videos to date. I loved this.

[@totadol]

Start at minute 10:30

[@purple_1]

Thanks😊

[@eternalfizzer]

Thanks for this! I like your idea of turning the screen brightness down so it's impossible to edit while writing. (I used an online pomodoro timer to get through my latest draft 0 for an essay-turned-script.) Longhand really helps me get a first draft out. My other problem is getting bogged down in details I know are wrong or factoids I don't know that i need to know - I just put or whatever in angle brackets (I do that with words or phrases I know are cliche too) and that lets me carry on without fear of forgetting to look whatever up. Kind of in-line notes-to-self. Hah! Just at 53:30 and hear you use [for research needed]. (listening in after the fact from St. John's, Newfoundland & Labrador)

[@MrUnnieBunnie]

Turning the screen off, I’m gonna try that!! It’s like I’m embarrassed to see myself writing a bad draft 😂 maybe that will fix it

[@scottjackson163]

We have Sandy Beach, Seymour Butt, and Peter Goesinya.

[@rachelthompson9324]

load the left brain with info then shift into right brain and ignore it as you draft. Get the book called, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, for more on how this works. Yes, anyone can draw.

[@WordsCanBeLikeXRays]

Extremely helpful insight to change one's perspective about writing and getting started.

[@ojkjunior]

I loved every single minute of this class!! Thanks from Brazil!

[@user-lr5td9co8f]

Thanks for this, I had intended attending this but I slept through my alarm :( was a tad early here in Australia.

[@patricklawton1045]

"Write or Die."

[@andycam4645]

Fantastic - as usual!

[@albertabramson3157]

Write as much as you can without editing/correcting and without slowing down. This is where you write the stuff that gets edited out after 5 or 6 revisions. It's placeholder Action statements and Dialogue to give you the structure of your first actual draft--nothing more.

[@albertabramson3157]

Click Like if you like the idea of blitzing out a structure draft without wasting time on spelling or grammar.

[@debdfw7720]

Texasl

[@patricklawton1045]

That's nuts! LOL

[@faithfaraday]

This video itself could use an editing stage. It is such a stream of consciousness and takes so long to get to the point, it is the epitome of the zero draft.