A friend of mine who’s a published writer gave me this trick for writing a first draft. NaNoWriMo aside, this is the only trick that’s helped me make progress on a first draft.

Curious to try it for yourself? This is what you do:

  1. Get a kitchen timer. You’ll need the kind you can set right in front of you. New ones go for about $5 at the grocery store.
  2. Find 15 minutes. Turn your phone off, close your browser, lock your kids in the closet—do whatever it takes to get yourself ready to sit down for 15 consecutive minutes.
  3. Open your draft file. Whether you’re using Google Docs or a plain ol’ text file, open it up and put your cursor at the end.
  4. Set the timer to 15 minutes. It’s possible to write one page in 15 minutes. But only if you keep moving forward. This is where your new little buddy the timer will help.
  5. Press the start button and WRITE. Write one page, that’s all you have to do. No re-reading what you’ve just written. No racking your brain for just the right word. No going back and rewriting what’s already there. Push yourself past those temptations and just WRITE.

Do these steps for enough days in a row, and you’ll have yourself a completed first draft.

You’re skeptical, I can tell. So let me tell you what will happen as the timer ticks away:

  • 14:50: You wasted 10 seconds staring at the blank page. Time to start your first sentence.
  • 13:45: Holy crap, where did that minute go? You realize you got stuck on one measly phrase in your first sentence.
  • 13:39: Ack! You have to write something, but what?
  • 12:45: Whew, first sentence done, second sentence started.
  • 10:32: Two new paragraphs magically appeared on your screen. Sweet!
  • You finally finish your first page, but you realize the timer never went off. Stupid timer. Now you’ll have to return it to the store. You glance down at the dysfunctional machine and it says:
  • 2:19: You finished a page with TWO WHOLE MINUTES LEFT! Go, go, GO, don’t look back!
  • BEEP! You throw the timer across the room to shut it up and keep writing.

The worst that could happen is you won’t quite make one page. But only if you’re not following the rules. No re-reading, no rewriting, remember?

Every single time I’ve used this trick, I end up writing closer to 2 pages in 15 minutes, or I get on such a roll that I end up writing for longer than the original 15 minutes. I am not a terribly fast typist. My brain does not work faster than yours. It has nothing to do with me and everything to do with your new little buddy.

So don’t go sticking him in a dark drawer where he’ll have to fend for himself against spiders and sit helpless as his batteries die. Your buddy loves nothing more than to sit in front of you, gazing into your genius writerly eyes for 15 minutes at a time. Don’t deny him his little ducky heart’s desire.

Do you have any little tricks like this to help you finish your first draft?

Photo by tanakawho.

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