Embrace the idea of multiple drafts – Things I learned while writing Dead Ringer

I’ve spent a lot of my writing life harbouring under the delusion that my first draft needed to be perfect. Or close enough, anyway. If my first draft was a disaster, I was a failure.

I still struggle with this perfectionism, but it’s good to remind myself that my first draft of Dead Ringer was a bit of a disaster. I pushed through, did many more drafts, until I got it right.

Getting into this habit of rewriting actually makes the process less stressful. You’re not putting as much pressure on yourself.

So next time you’re having a bad writing day, try saying to yourself: I’ll give myself permission to write a really terrible draft and fix it in the rewrite.

Read more of the things I learned while writing Dead Ringer