How to write better first drafts of your stories
Better first drafts come from alignment, not perfection.
Workshop alert! Join me and Kaitlyn Arford of Freelance Opportunities on May 7 at 4:30 p.m. Eastern for an in-depth tutorial on how to use social media to find more freelance work and build a sustainable — and profitable! — business. There is SO much out there for those who know exactly how to look, and Kaitlyn is the best in the biz at digging up those opportunities. Click here to register, and remember that paid subscribers get free access (for details on that, see the middle of this post). See you May 7!
One of the most common questions I get during the writing workshops I host is this: “What can I do to improve the first draft of stories I file?”
We all want to know the secret to turning in pristine, error-free copy. Sure, you could have three different friends offer notes before you file, or rewrite your story 20 times. But the truth is, your first drafts are never going to be perfect. Whenever you’re self-editing, you reach a point where you’re no longer making improvements, you’re just making things different.
And that’s fine! That’s part of the process! Your editor doesn’t expect a first draft to be perfect, and that’s why we editors exist. This is true of a student journalist working toward their first byline, and of veterans who have been in the industry for decades. Even Taffy Brodesser-Akner, one of the greatest working writers IMO, can take up to nine drafts for a story. Iteration is built into the process.
All that said: There is something you can do to ensure you’re filing the best version of a first draft you can. And it’s much easier than you might think.
The secret? No surprises.
Yes, it’s that simple. The best thing you can do to improve your first drafts is to meet expectations and make sure your editor isn’t surprised by anything in your copy.
Here’s what I mean.
More May workshops! All registrants will get a full playback of the workshop, whether or not they attend live, and paid subscribers get 50% off tickets!
• May 14 @ 4:30 p.m. Eastern: How to start and grow a newsletter. Join me and Parker Molloy of The Present Age for a workshop on how to launch and grow a successful newsletter. We’ll cover the best platforms for publishing your newsletter, how to find your target audience, how to promote your work, the ins and outs of developing your niche, and so much more!
• May 21 @ 4:30 p.m. Eastern: The art of structuring a longform narrative. Join me for a workshop on how to structure and organize a longform narrative feature. I’ll lead a deconstruction exercise of a published longform narrative story and give you tips and advice on how to use those tools in your writing. It’ll be structured like a grad school-level class, with participation encouraged (but, of course, not required)!
Ideally, when you work with an editor — though, admittedly, not always — you’ve agreed, at least in big-picture terms, on the structure, organization, framing, sourcing, and tone of your story. To file a strong first draft, just follow through on what you and your editor agreed on for how the story should look and feel. Go through your notes and emails with your editor from when you first started talking about how to build this story, and do a quick check of whether you’ve delivered on what you’ve discussed.
Is your story structured the way you agreed it should be? Does your sourcing look how you said it would? Did you organize it the way you said you would? Are you in the right word count range? Revisiting all of this will save you and your editor time by covering the basics of your story, because you’ve agreed on the baseline of what the story needs. Once you’ve satisfied all of that, your editor can offer you notes on how to make your story sing.
The “no surprises” rule is a bedrock principle of journalism when it comes to stories in general: The subjects of your story should not be surprised by what’s in it, broadly speaking. “Fairness also means adhering to the ‘no surprises’ rule when writing critically of someone: affording the source the opportunity to answer allegations or criticisms before publishing the work,” according to the N.Y.U. Journalism Handbook for Students. Applying that same rule to your relationship with your editor is going to save you so much time in the long run — and make your first drafts so much stronger. (So don’t be surprised when it gets you on an editor’s regulars roster.)
Good luck out there!
Oh, a few other things …
Got a question about freelancing or the wider world of journalism? Let’s hear it, and I may feature it in a future Q&A post! Drop any of your questions, comments, and thoughts about freelancing and journalism in general in a comment below, or email me at tim@freelancingwithtim.com.
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