Episode Forty-Two: Dear Fiction Writers, Your Messy First Draft is Magic.
This episode is my love letter to anyone who has looked at their messy draft and wanted to cry.
It doesn’t matter what your draft looks like right now, you aren’t doomed and this draft isn’t destiny. It might not be easy, but you can make your book work.
This week’s episode is part pep talk, part motivational speech, part call to action.
Listen now and get inspired to write the best book possible!
And if you want my help to kickstart your revisions, join me for the Revision Kickstart Challenge starting today!!!!
This free 3-day event runs from September 22nd - 24th!
Over those 3 days, I’ll teach you how to set yourself up for success, set a vision for your book, and prepare for the revision work ahead.
Listening to this after the challenge starts? That’s okay! You can register for replay access until 10/4/26!
Get the full details and register for the challenge at OHWRevisionClass.com!
I can’t wait to see you live and help you write a better book!!
Get the full details and register for the challenge at OHWRevisionClass.com!
I can’t wait to see you live and help you write a better book!!
You can listen in your favorite podcast player here or watch on YouTube here.
Thanks for listening, keep writing, and keep getting better one word at a time!
Transcript
Please note: This transcript is automatically generated and has not been edited.
Olivia (00:00)
What do you see when you look at your first draft? A mess? A failure? A bunch of typos that you can't believe you actually put down on paper? Today I want to encourage you to see something else in that draft. Magic. Pure, unfiltered magic. And I know that might sound ridiculous or a little woo-woo, but bear with me, because I really mean that your first draft is magical, and I want you to believe that too. Let's get started.
Welcome to episode 42 of the Better Writer Podcast. Today I want you to believe that your first draft is magical. And it's magical not just because of what it could be, but because of what you've already accomplished. Think about it. You took ideas and images and characters that only existed in your head and you put them down on paper. You used 26 inert symbols that we call letters.
And you used that to bring an entire world to life. And let's be real, it might not feel that magical right now. Your first draft might not be doing everything that you wanted it to. You might look at your first draft and see something that doesn't even come close to resembling the books that you have been reading and falling in love with your entire life. And I get it. I have been there, I have looked at a first draft and cried because all I saw was what I hadn't done. But don't forget about everything that you've already accomplished. You finished the draft. So many people don't even get to that stage in the process. And you should be so proud of yourself because that is an accomplishment, it is a milestone that no one can take away from you because you got to the end. You did it.
And the other thing that I want you to see in your draft is the magic of potential. And I know this probably sounds like a ridiculous self-help book right now, but I mean it. Your first draft is just the beginning. It is your starting point. It is not your destination. Every book that you have ever read, every published book sitting on your bookshelf right now or on your Kindle or anywhere else started off as a first draft. And it was probably messy. It could have even been messier than yours. The only difference between your book and those books is revision. It is the editing that happened in between. It is the changes that were made from draft one to the final polished version. And it was the team of people supporting that writer to get there.
They had people behind them, editors, agents, supporters, beta readers, anything else, you name it, they had that support to get their book published.
They're not more talented or more special than you. And it might feel like there is a huge gap between you and the writers that you aspire to be, but you can get there. And that potential is sitting in your first draft right now. I want you to look past the mess, past the scenes that go nowhere, past the sentences that don't even make any sense right now. Look past all of that. Look at your potential. You did something incredible just by finishing that first draft.
And I want you to see the magic that lies ahead for you and your book. Now, let's get a little bit more tactical and a little less woo-woo here. because usually I am the person who gives you concrete actionable revision advice. And when I say that your story is magic, I am not trying to BS you or get you to overlook the problems in your current draft.
I just want you to focus on what could be. Because no matter how messy your draft is right now, you have the power to change it. You can change your genre so that your story is a better fit for what you're trying to sell it as. You can amplify different themes. You can completely rewrite a character, you can get rid of a character, you can add a subplot, take one away, you can change your conflict, you can change your structure. Everything in your story can be changed. And that is beautiful. It's magical because for so many other crafts out there, that isn't the case. If you are a potter and you've already done the thing and made the pot and put it in the kiln, you can't just reform it. You can't just break it back down to its component parts and start again. You would have to toss that pot aside and completely start over with something new. As a writer, you don't have to do that. You can delete words, add them, reshape them however many times that you want to, and it doesn't cost you a thing besides your time and your effort.
But you don't have to completely restart over. You get to take the bones of what is there, the ideas that are there, and you get to bring them out into the open. And you might think that your first draft is just completely hopeless, but the seeds of your best ideas are already there on the page. I would bet money on it. So much of my job as an editor and a book coach is just helping people see what they've already put on the page, but didn't even recognize the plot problem that you have been struggling with has probably already been solved by something you planted 10 pages ago. You just can't see it because you're too close to your project.
And all you need is the right coach, the right person to bring that out in revision. All you need is the effort and the motivation to keep revising. All you need is a strategy and a process for taking that messy draft and unleashing and uncovering all of the magic inside. And I know this might sound too good to be true or ridiculous, but I really believe that revision is where the magic happens. Your first draft is just the starting point. Then we go in, we make things better, we analyze our story, we figure out what is and isn't working, and we make the changes. And that is where a mundane mediocre draft becomes a magical story that hooks readers, immerses them in a world that came solely from your mind and becomes something really special.
And I want you today to look at your first draft differently. Don't just see the things you didn't do. See all the potential. See the seeds that you have not yet uncovered, the seeds that need to be nurtured and grown and developed so that they can flourish. They are there in your manuscript. You just need to learn how to recognize them. You just need a process for harnessing the messy bits and changing them into something that is beautiful. It can be done. Your first draft is not doomed. Your book is not doomed.
I know that there is a person out there who still believes in their story, but they are completely overwhelmed by the idea of revising. They don't know how to do it. They don't know how to move forward. And today I just want to encourage you that your belief is not crazy. You are not wrong to believe in the potential of your story. If you believe that your story can be great, even though you see no evidence of that on the page right now, keep that belief going because you are right. The magic is there in your manuscript. It just needs to be brought to the surface. And it might be hard. It might take a lot of hard work to uncover that magic, but it can be done. I want you to do it. I believe that you can do it.
And you need to believe that you can do it. Even if you have second guessed yourself, even if you have questioned why you even thought you could be a writer, it's not too late. It is not over for you. There is magic hiding in your manuscript beyond the mess. There is magic because of the mess. That idea that randomly popped into your head that showed up on the page that you don't even know where it came from, that might be the thing that makes your book so special. That might be the thing that allows you to unlock your plot and your character arcs in magnificent ways.
And what we do now is we learn how to embrace the mess, we learn how to harness the mess, we learn how to revise in a way that works for messy drafts and isn't trying to force you into a plotter box that you don't fit in. We learn those lessons, we figure out how to make our story work and we uncover the magic so we can share it with readers. And that's what this is all about. There's a reader out there who needs your book, who wants to read your story, who's going to enjoy it and love it, and who's going to be touched by it. Let's get it in their hands. So do not be afraid of your messy draft.
Do not look at that draft and think that you have failed. That you will never be a writer. That is not true. This is just step one. The next step is to revise and revise again if we need to. It might take multiple rounds. It might take a lot of time and a lot of effort from you, but you can do this. You wrote your story for a reason. You put your heart and soul into your draft, and you still believe that it can be great. And you're right. If you believe you can do it, you're right. If you believe that your messy draft is not the end of the story, you were right. Let's get in there. Let's embrace the mess. Let's make it happen.
All right, this episode was a little bit different. this was just kind of a pep a pep talk that was on my heart that I wanted to share with you. And I hope that you are feeling inspired to look beyond the surface level, look beyond the typos, the half scenes, the fragments. That is all just the beginning of your journey. That is your first draft, your first attempt. That's it. It's not supposed to be perfect. And just by existing, your first draft has done its job. So thank that draft, appreciate it.
And now let's start looking ahead to how we uncover all of the magic hiding in that first draft, all the ideas that you weren't even consciously aware of when you put them on the page. Let's harness them, let's amplify them, let's make the best version of that book possible. And let's celebrate the messy first draft that got you ready for step two, which is where we revise it and we make that magic work for readers.
If you want a head start, if you want to start learning how to revise, how to get your story ready for readers, come to my free revision kickstart challenge. It starts today, as this episode is coming out. So this episode is coming out the morning of September 22nd. The challenge starts at 3:30 p.m. Eastern today, 9 22, 2026. So if you are listening to this episode in real time, if you happen to come across it on the right morning to start this challenge live, then you can register at OHWRevisionClass.com.
That link is going to be wherever you're watching or listening to the show. Now, if you're a person who is finding this after 3:30 on the 22nd, that's okay too. If it is still in September, if you're like a day late, register anyway. You will get the replays, you'll get all of the worksheets, everything you need, you can still ask me questions and you can still participate in the challenge, even if you're coming a day or two late. Don't don't miss it. It's gonna be so much fun.
But if you are listening from further in the future, you're not missing out either. I'm going to be posting the replays as podcast episodes as well. You won't get all of the challenge content. You won't be eligible for the live prizes, but you can still hear all of the good stuff that I shared in that live Kickstart Challenge. so no matter who you are, no matter when you're listening to this episode, I hope that I can help you kickstart your revisions and get started on the right foot because your book can be great.
You just need to revise and you need to revise in a way that works for you, that works for your story, that works for messy drafts. Don't try to revise like someone else, revise like yourself. Learn how to make this process work for you so that you can bring all of the magic of your ideas and your story to life. All right. Thank you so, so much for listening to this short and sweet episode of the Better Writer Podcast. Again, if you are listening on September 22nd, my three-day revision kickstart challenge goes live this afternoon, 3:30 p.m. Eastern.
You can register at OHWRevisionClass.com or find that link wherever you're watching or listening to the show. Thank you so so much for listening to another episode of the Better Writer Podcast. Have a wonderful week. Keep writing, keep getting better, one word at a time. See ya.
