NaNoWriMo is fast approaching and many of us will be sitting down to attempt no small feat. We’ll be writing a first draft for a story that will eventually become a perfect manuscript.

And note I’ve placed the word eventually in italics.

First drafts are rough drafts, sometimes very rough drafts. Many of mine have no resemblance to the stories they became. Plots got changed, characters who didn’t have a POV got granted a voice, and locations even changed.

What can stop you from writing and meeting your writing goals is trying to write a perfect first draft. There’s no such thing (well only for the lucky few).

When you tackle NaNoWriMo or sit down to write any day of the year, don’t be a perfectionist, be a writer and accept the only way to get a story written, finished, and maybe even published, is to get those words on the screen or paper.

Don’t worry about finding the perfect names for your characters, coming up with natural sounding dialogue. Don’t obsess over your spelling or grammar.

Write your story and then use your second, third or even fourth draft to make it perfect and ready to submit.