A zero draft
captures all
the possibilities
The first time I tried Camp NaNoWriMo, my goal was to write 5,000 words.
To my surprise, I wrote 39,368 words.
This may not seem like a lot — until you compare it to the very first book I sold.
The manuscript for Air Show was 40 words long.
Snippet:
White clouds, blue sky–
Up above . . .
Eagles fly . . .
McDONNELL DOUGLAS F-15 EAGLE (1972)
Up until this point, I always began my writing time by revising what I had written the day before and then writing new material.
For my first Camp NaNoWriMo I decided to take a different approach — and write a zero draft of story notes. I started a Word document and wrote down each and every word that came to mind for a month.
The characters, the settings, and the story changed each and every day, but I didn’t go back and revise the old notes. I just wrote down my new ideas as they came to me. Day after day, I kept writing, and writing, and writing.
By the end of the month, I had 39,368 words of story notes. I had also figured out who the characters were, what the settings were, and how I wanted the story to move from beginning to end. Writing all of those notes for my zero draft immersed me in the world of my story. The next month, when I began my first draft, the words flowed out . . .
Copyright © 2020 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.