Things to remember at the start of a new book’s first draft

1. Remember the last book you wrote? In that book’s first draft, it took you 40,000 words to get to the point where the final draft’s first chapter ends.

2. Remember the book before that? It’s first draft was the entirely wrong story, set in the wrong season in the wrong town with the wrong characters, and only thematic and worldbuilding threads carrying through to the next draft.

3. And in the one before that, you only kept the prologue and the setting and the raven and the shapeshifting bear. Also the protagonist, but only sort of. There weren’t even any arctic foxes yet!

4. Embrace the rambling. Embrace the rambling. Embrace the rambling.

5. Go!

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