Image ID: A teacher's back faces the camera. She appears to be holding a book. A small group of children of multiple races looks at what she's holding with rapt attention.
A number of years ago, during the height of pandemic lockdown, I spent a fair amount of time eavesdropping on remote kindergarten video meetings happening in the next room. (Shout-out to the amazing Mrs. Campbell!)
It was during that time, while listening in on my son's literacy lessons, that it occurred to me what valuable lessons kindergarten can teach us adults about the craft of writing.
1. The first draft is for mistakes.
My son is the type of kid who loves to make up stories but hates to write anything down unless he's absolutely confident he knows how to spell it correctly. And because a huge focus of kindergarten is learning how to put letters and sounds together to make words, it was important during that stage that the adults in his life didn't just feed him the spelling of a word every time he asked. On the other hand, we didn’t want him to get so frustrated, fearful, or nervous that he didn’t put anything on paper at all. It was a delicate balance.
Of course, as adults we have the luxury of spell-check. But we let our perfectionism, fear, or doubt hold us back in many other ways.
Perhaps you're like my son and tend to get in your own way. You do such a good job of convincing yourself you can't write, it won't be good, no one will like it, and your ideas are crap, that you cross out or delete every other sentence and keep rewriting and rewriting. By the time you're done with that day's writing session, not only do you have nothing down on paper, but you're so discouraged you want to give up altogether.
Or maybe you're like me and you want to make sure you accurately describe the tree your protagonist climbs, so you waste an hour googling pictures and reading about the textural nuances of willow tree bark.
The desire to get your details, your word choice, your story, and your plot exactly right is a great instinct. It's just not what a first draft is for.
A first draft is for mistakes.
You'll have plenty of opportunities to perfect it later. That's what rewrites are for. The first draft is for letting your creativity flow free and unencumbered. It's for allowing yourself the permission to get it wrong.
My son's teacher used the concepts of a supported release of control and inventive spelling to help kids avoid getting in their own way during writing time. She taught them, “You can do this, you have the tools, and if you get it wrong, that's okay—there will be time to fix it later.”
For our purposes, I suggest a freewrite exercise. A freewrite is where you set a timer and write without stopping. You can do this with or without a writing prompt (a phrase or picture to jump start your thought process). I like to do 20-30 minutes, but you can always start smaller and work your way up. Begin writing and don't stop until the timer goes off. No crossing out or erasing or hitting the delete button or going back and circling things and making notes in the margins. Just keep writing. If you get stuck, just write "I'm stuck, I don't know what to write" until you get unstuck. You can always make a note in parentheses to yourself to fact check something later, but don't stop or spend time dwelling on it—and absolutely NO GOOGLING!
When the timer goes off, go back and read your work. Fix things, change things, and research things. You may find you're in a groove and want to keep going. If that's the case, do it. There's plenty of time to rewrite later. This brings me to number two.
2. When you're done, you've just begun.
One morning, as I walked by my son's room, I heard his teacher offer this singsongy aphorism with classic kindergarten teacher enthusiasm. The class had just finished an independent activity, drawing a picture and writing a simple sentence to go with it. She reminded them that now it was their job to go back and add more details, check their spelling, and correct any upside down or backwards letters.
If I were only allowed to give a single piece of advice to writers, I would break out my best kindergarten teacher voice and sing them Mrs. Campbell's cheerful reminder: “When you're done, you've just begun.”
One of the most common mistakes I see with newer writers is a lack of understanding of the work required to get something publication ready or query ready. It's not uncommon for authors to complete dozens of rewrites of a single manuscript.
After your initial ideas-on-the-page draft—and after you take a beat to celebrate that huge accomplishment—that's when you gotta really roll up your sleeves and get down to it.
Here are some things to look for as you dig in to rewrites:
Is your plot well formed?
Does it have any holes?
Is it believable within the world of your story?
Are your characters fully developed?
Do they have clear and strong objectives, obstacles, and stakes?
Are the character arcs well formed?
Do the characters change in some way by the end of the story?
Are the relationships between characters clear?
Then there’s your setting.
Are your descriptions vivid?
Do they evoke a sense of place?
Do you use all five senses in your descriptions?
Are there enough rich details to allow the reader to picture the setting?
And of course, dialogue.
Is the speech of each individual character distinct?
Does the dialogue move the story forward, or is it laden with too much exposition?
What does the way the characters speak, and what they say, reveal about them—and is this what you intend to show?
We can’t forget mechanics.
Have you checked for tense errors?
Is the point of view consistent?
Have you scanned for errors in spelling, punctuation, and grammar?
Before you freak out, take a deep breath with me. You do not have to tackle this all at once, and you do not have to tackle it alone. Address one element at a time before moving on to the next, and when you’ve polished it as much as you can on your own, bring in an outside eye for feedback.
The point I want you to take away is not a panic attack. Or that finishing your first draft isn't a huge accomplishment. Because it is! Not many people finish a complete draft of a manuscript. But a whole lot fewer people complete their first draft and persevere, putting in the work to rewrite and polish the manuscript.
What I do want to impress upon you is that it’s a lot of work. This is a marathon, not a sprint. I think knowing and mentally preparing yourself for that can go a long way toward setting yourself up for success.
As Mrs. Campbell might say: Alright class, this concludes today’s lesson. Now get out there and get writing!
Image ID: Andrea, a white woman with brown, curly hair, stands in front of a tree. She wears a blue dress and is smiling at the camera.
Andrea Karin Nelson is the Founder & Executive Editor at Allegory Editing. In addition to her developmental editing work with published novelists, playwrights, and essayists, Andrea brings a unique set of experiences and skills to her editing craft. Twenty years as a writer and theater maker has developed her keen sense of story structure, plot and character development. Her plays have been commissioned and produced across the United States and performed in both English and American Sign Language. Fifteen years as a Master-Level, Certified Sign Language Interpreter has finely tuned her ear to the subtleties of language and the nuances of human interactions. And with over two decades as an educator, her teacher's heart allows Andrea to personally tailor her work with each writer. Click here to read an interview about Andrea’s journey founding Allegory. You can contact her at andrea@allegoryediting.com.