At the beginning of this year, I kicked off 2025 by finishing the first draft of my new WIP. It took a few months to get through the draft. There were ups and downs and several things I had to remind myself of. I wanted to share them with you in hope that they can encourage you.

It’s called a rough draft for a reason.

My draft came in under word count. My main character is somewhat flat. My scenes are repetitive. There’s not enough tension, and the mystery aspect is probably too obvious. I knew these problems existed even before I’d typed “The End.”

But if I hadn’t finished the rough draft, if I’d gotten stuck on all the problems and given up, I wouldn’t have anything to edit. And editing is where you make a story shine. You just have to have something to work with first. So let the first draft be messy.

Consistency is important.

I know “Write every day” is a semi-controversial piece of advice, so I’m not saying that. But I am saying to be in your story regularly. The times when drafting was easier were when I was consistent in my writing routine. My brain was trained to focus on writing, and I was more familiar with where I was in the story and what needed to happen.

Every book with be different.

This is the seventh book I’ve written. And with each book, the drafting process has been different. It was really easy to compare where I was at in drafting to a previous book I’d drafted—how my typing speed and word counts varied, and so on.

But they were each different books, and were each written in different stages of life and different parts of my journey and growth as a writer. And so each drafting experience was naturally different.

Drafting is hard. I won’t deny that. But press on! Finish that book. You were given your story for a reason.