This is the draft when I scope out the terrain: go in, write and write, and let the characters tell me what the story is about. Or tell me what sort of things the story might be about. Or tell me what it isn’t about. Regardless, there will be a lot of telling, and precious little showing, at this early stage.
This is the draft where I write the wrong story on the way to the right one. It’s where throw clay on the wheel knowing I can work it into some shape later. It’s where I spin straw out air, trusting I can spin gold out of the straw later, because I can’t get straight from air to gold. There are steps in between, in getting from Nothing to Something.
The exploratory draft is a little scary, because I utterly let perfectionism go–I’m not even trying to get it right. I’m just trying to get a there there, so that there’s something to get right later.
And the exploratory draft is glorious fun, because it’s where I let perfectionism go. It doesn’t have to be readable. It doesn’t have to have meaning, yet, to anyone but me.
It’s a beginning. All the possibilities are spread wide before me, and I don’t have to rule any of them out yet.
This is the draft when I remind myself, yet again, to trust my process.