In Praise of Mental Drafting

There is nothing that has saved me more trips to the ice-cold wall of writer’s block than mental drafting.

I’m not a big believer in “rules” when it comes to writing, as you can find exceptions to just about any writing rule out there. One rule that I do enforce on myself, however, is this: I never come to the keyboard without something ready to write.

It’s hard for non-writers to appreciate just how daunting a blinking cursor on a blank Word Doc can be. That’s why I make sure I have something locked and loaded in the old mind cannon so I can send that little blinking line scurrying across the screen as soon as my fingers hit the keys.

When I’m in the preliminary stages of story drafting, I have to sift through a lot of ideas to see what fits and what doesn’t. I find it’s infinitely easier to edit or altogether scrap ideas in my mind rather than tearfully highlighting and deleting whole scenes from a Word Doc because they just don’t work. I also have the advantage of working on my story even when away from the computer. I’ve done some of my best writing while mowing the lawn or on long drives.

Mental drafting is also a highly visual experience. When I craft scenes in my head, I’m essentially watching a movie in my mind. I wind up with distinct visual details that never would have occurred to me while staring at a blank computer screen.

Ultimately, mental drafting is the process that works best for me.

But that may not be the case for you.

One of the many awesome things about writing is that we all have our own system, our own way of getting to that final chapter. That’s what brings such delicious variety to this quirky trade of ours. Whether or not mental drafting is for you, there’s really only one unbreakable commandment in all of writing:

Never stop.