No more prodraftinating!

Anyone who’s read my Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place books knows I like making up words. 

The most popular invention in that series was “optoomuchism,” which is the tendency to take optimism much, much too far. Spending your Powerball winnings before actually checking to see if you have the winning ticket would be an example of optoomuchism. 

Well, today, dear storytellers, I have a new word for you: prodraftinating. 

It’s what happens when we use drafting as a means of procrastinating.

Now, before you get all flustered, know that I want you to be drafting your books! I want you to have fun doing it, too. Creative work is a form of play, and it should feel like that while you’re drafting.

But what I want you to consider is that scribbling pages of words without making actual choices about what happens is a red flag. It’s using that good “look at me, I’m drafting!” feeling of putting words on the page to avoid doing what many writers struggle with: hammering out the story.

In this livestream I talk about how to make sure the stuff you make up when you sit down to work is useful, and not simply prodraftinating. 

The key? Focus on what happens. What happens in this scene? What happens next? And what happens after that?

If you’re not sure how to to that, no worries. I break it down into five essential questions you should ask every time you sit down to draft. 

Are you a prodraftinator? Let me know in the comments!