It’s that time again.
A new year.
I hope you all had a happy new year and got through it with your fingers are intact.
Ready to tackle the writing of 2025.
I certainly am.
And what better way to start it by getting rid of the blank document.
As writers, there’s nothing more dreadful than starring at a blank document and have no idea on how to get rid of it.
Some people call it writer’s block, some call it laziness, I just call it “in need of some creativity.”
Whatever you call it, there’s nothing like the feeling once you finally get it over it.
There’s plenty of ways to get over it out there, but for me, I found a way that not only helped me get over it. I found a way to push the needle forward and create drafts I could use later on.
What do you say?
Ready to get away from the blank document and start writing drafts that you actually use?
Sit back as I tell you how blind drafting changed my writing career.
The birth of blind drafting
I’m a lazy writer and I like to do things in the simplest ways possible, and blind drafting is something I stumbled upon as I tried to get rid of the blank document.
“But Jack, what does blind drafting even mean, do you write with your eyes closed?”
Of course not.
I mean I could, but it would probably cause more harm than good if I tried.
But blind draft is an exercise meant to give you the freedom to be creative.
All it takes is a bit of patience and practice, and you’ll have all the drafts you need.
In fact, I used blind drafting to write this specific post.
And while the name might seem unfitting it’s there for a reason:
The name blind drafting is because you go in blind.
You sit down at your desk, open a document and let whatever thought you have down on the paper and just continue until you feel like you have said what you need to say.
That’s about it.
“But Jack, isn’t that just brainstorming?”
Not quite.
You could say blind drafting is something in-between: You have an idea, but you are struggling to start.
And while there are a few similarities, brainstorming allows you fill a page with a million ideas while blind drafting allows you to focus on a single idea and make it fill pages.
Here’s how it works
Let’s just get one thing out of the way first:
The draft serves two purposes: (1) to prove to yourself that an idea is good enough to get started on. (2) To get you started.
A blind draft is simply sitting down at your desk and writing for 30-45 minutes without stopping.
But instead of just writing, you need to develop your story and character without getting lost in the details:
You shouldn’t focus on writing perfect grammar, be free.
You shouldn’t focus on the perfect plot, be adventurous.
You shouldn’t focus on the perfect characters and relationships, be bold.
“But Jack how’s that supposed to help me? I already know these things.”
I expect nothing less, but do you actually follow them?
I know I didn’t.
Mainly because I gave up too quickly if a story didn’t end up the way I wanted it to.
You see, as a writer, it’ll probably take you 10-15 minutes before you truly emerged in the story you are writing.
And therefore, if you stop after 5 minutes you might be stopping just as your brain starts to fire. Or if you are focusing on the creating the perfect story, you’re stopping your brain from even warming up.
Therefore, to develop your idea in the best possible way, you should sit in an environment where you are able to write for 30-45 minutes, which should be enough to write the first couple of pages of a story.
In other words: You need to give yourself 30-45 minutes to write the worst possible draft for your idea. If you end up at something you like, then you know you’re on to something.
How I have used it myself.
Luckily, I’m quite good at just sitting down and starting a story whenever I have an idea.
With my first novel, I knew I wanted to write about a character that went through challenges to reach a certain goal.
It was a situation I was going through at the time.
So, I decided to sit down at my desk and write.
40 minutes and 3 pages, I stopped.
I finished the blind draft which I called Day 1.
(I ended up doing blind drafting for 3 days, but I couldn’t get the draft I did on Day 1 out of my head.)
As you might see, 2 years later, the “Day 1” blind draft eventually became the draft of my first novel.
A novel about a boy named Marcel that goes through challenges to experience what life has to offer.
And because I had done the blind draft, it made the whole writing much easier.
If the main struggle is to stare at the blank document, then I have discovered: Just having something ready, even if it’s just a few lines to get started or you don’t have any idea if it’s good, then it’s enough to trick your brain to get over the daunting feeling of blank.
How often do you recommend doing the exercise
Great question, but it all depends on you.
If you are just starting out, are struggling with getting ideas, or just find it hard to get a good start going.
I’d advise you do a couple of drafts.
It can either be the start of the story, a scene, or maybe a compressed version of the story.
Set a side a week where you try to do a daily blind draft where you aim to write a couple of pages within 30-45 minutes.
Then at the end of the week you’re capable of selecting the one that fits the best with you.
But I doubt you’ll make it to the end, because it’ll be an instant feeling.
You’ll know which draft to pick immediately, when you sit down to write another draft.
You’ll know from how easy it is to continue the story and how you connect with the story and characters.
Now, personally, I like to have a single novel draft that I’m working on at the time, so I might do a couple of blind drafts and then once I have a story I like, then I will spend anything from 1 to 3 months finishing the novel draft.
But as I said earlier, I feel lucky to have a gift of endless ideas for stories, so I mainly use blind drafting when I have multiple ideas and I need some help to choose which idea to explore first.
An important point
The point of doing a blind draft is to focus on your idea and ignore any requirements.
Blind drafting is just a draft, not the final product.
And the purpose of the draft is to test your idea without wasting a lot of time and build a working draft at the same time.
The blind draft is meant to get away from the blank document and give you the power of choice.
It’s a simple way to get started and the more you do, the easier it will be to start.
And don’t worry if an idea doesn’t fit 100%.
Even if you don’t end up using an idea, you’ll be able to use it or parts of the story in other ideas you choose to continue.
It’s an exercise to help free your mind from the ideas that it might think is good. It’s an opportunity to give yourself 30 minutes to write a few pages and discover if an idea fits.
The more blind drafts you write and ideas you try to explore without any requirements, the better you get at getting started. And the better you get, the more comfortable your mind will feel, and eventually you’ll find the blank document is a thing of the past.
That’s a wrap for today.
As a new writer, I know it feels like there’s a million things you need to know before you get the hang of things. One of the things I struggled with the most was creating a writing system that worked.
And after scrapping through years of painful writing, I have gathered them in a post to help you avoid the frustration and help you create a writing system that works in just 3 steps.
Until next time, have a productive and creative day.
Your writing buddy,
Jack