The Bad Version Part Three: The Vomit Draft And Writing Sprints

Let's Talk First Drafts

Ultimately this project is about embracing the fact that some of the first ideas we come up with, the bad versions, will need to be revised. We all have bad versions of stories inside of us, the unformed, cliched, lackluster versions we desperately do not want to tell. Get them down on paper as soon as you can - for only then can we reshape them to be great.

Read Part One here.

Part Two here.

So many young writers I meet want their first draft to be perfect, ready for publishers or producers to read and immediately pay them big buck$. They’ll be nervous over every word, sentence, line of dialogue or scene until it’s PERFECT, torturing themselves along the way. I used to do this to myself and I hated every moment of it.

Writing always exists in a vacuum. Should you be so lucky as to have a writing partner to help share to load (and the nail biting) the writing still exists in a vacuum. It isn’t until someone reads the work and has a reaction to it, that the vacuum seal is broken - fresh air and ideas must be let in for the seed of your idea to properly germinate.

Mixed metaphor? I’ll rewrite it later.

The Vomit Draft

At some point, I began to take the opposite approach. It’s called the vomit draft and it’s exactly that. You’ve got a story inside your head that might be making you sick. Like a college student after a night of binge drinking, the best thing to do is get it out. It’s not going to be pretty, but you’ll feel a hell of a lot better afterward.

What I’m not taking into account here is the planning / outlining stage. You might walk around with an idea in your head for months, maybe even years, before starting to actually write it. That’s okay! The story will usually let you know when it’s ready to be put down on paper. I do encourage outlining (which will be addressed in the next post) but also accept that some writers like to feel their way through a first draft.

My outlines range anywhere from 1 page to 30 pages. I suppose I’d advocate for the hybrid model of outlining and story spelunking. In other words, I like to know where I’m headed but not necessarily how I get there.

At this point, I can puke out a draft of a screenplay in about 3 weeks. Stephen King says he doesn’t linger on a draft of a novel longer than 6 months. How is this possible, you might ask? The answer is focused work. But I don’t mean sitting in front of your keyboard for 8 hours a day banging your head against the wall. Television writer Jane Espenson (Buffy, Battlestar) got me hooked on what she calls “Writing Sprints” - hour long blocks of focused work. Jane even leads group sprints on her Bluesky!

Writing Sprints

For my sprints, I set a timer on my watch, put my phone on Do Not Disturb, and do nothing but write for that hour. When the timer goes off, you can step away from your work knowing full well that you accomplished something (even if you didn’t get past that first sentence). Or, if you’re feeling in a groove, keep going for a little longer.

The main point here is to take a break - have a snack, walk your dog, play some video games. Give your extremely creative brain a chance to reset. It’s a bit like working out, actually. I find I can usually accomplish 4x1Hr Writing Sprints in an average day. That’s the secret to my 3 week first drafts.

In between the rush of writing THE END and the crushing depression that comes with the knowledge that I have to scrap the whole thing and start over - I take calculated breaks. As many days away from the material as I need for it to feel fresh again. But in those days, I write other things (like this blog!)

Never. Stop. Writing! (Then hunker down and do some rewrites.)