The Discovery Draft
a way to approach beginnings
As someone who has heard tons of what people like to call first drafts, I noticed a long time ago that much of what was I was hearing was the writer making discoveries on the page as they wrote. This is a wonderful thing. I want to thank all the writers whose work I got to hear straight from their heads, writers who shared really early work with me. It led me to the idea of the Discovery Draft.
Some, influenced by Anne Lamott, call this early work the Shitty First Draft. I don’t like that term. I’m sure that Lamott is only trying to get us all to allow for the bad writing that happens to everyone when we begin anything. She wants to free us from thinking that our work should flow the way published work (which has been through many drafts) can. She is trying to normalize the fact that creating is a process. But I don’t like the term.
Instead I offer the Discovery Draft. This is where you are first making your discoveries of what the world is, and who its inhabitants are, what they want and what they need, and all the drama and love and light in between. Discovery is a term that gives me the room I need to actually make these discoveries without feeling bad or wrong about the work.
“Oh! I didn’t realize that! Now I have to go back and fix everything!” becomes “Oh! I didn’t realize that! What a strong choice! How can I make it clearer?”
Being in the midst of a Discovery Draft gives me permission to allow for my impulses even if my discoveries mess up my outline because I am discovering. I have room to play. I have room to learn from my characters.
My Discovery Draft can serve as my outline, or my outline can be a series of discoveries. Either way (whether you want to use an outline or not, for whatever you’re creating) consider using the term to free yourself from having to know everything all the time. You don’t.
Many people don’t begin their projects because they worry they don’t understand the structure yet. But structure doesn’t always present itself in the beginning. Often structure has to be realized after the Discovery Draft is done. Then, once you’ve made the discoveries, you can head into what I think of as a First Draft with a greater understanding of the story and its structure.
Yes, you can argue that every draft is filled with discoveries, and that’s true. I think I need to move away from the idea of the “Shitty First Draft” because it’s unkind and unhelpful for me. Reminding myself I am here to make discoveries feels especially important in the beginning.
Right now every day is a beginning. People are struggling. We must create kindness and compassion more than ever before. To do the work needed, there must be joy too. Give yourself permission to do what you need to do for you so that you can move out into the world as a force of nature which is what we all are.
PROMPT:
I’ve been thinking a lot about RETURN. What does it mean to return? This prompt is adapted from a warm-up in Brave Space. We start our warm-ups with a single word and whatever first image comes to mind. We do a free-writing using our divergent mind, allowing for anything that arises as a practice to learn to notice and honor the impulse.
Return could take you to standing in line at the store holding something that doesn't fit, something you received as a gift that proves the giver never knew you. Or going home, returning to a place where you grew up or returning to a home you never knew, an ancestral home or a homeland.
Or returning to yourself. The “you” here could be a character instead. Returning to the topic, or the reason they are there for the thing they need to do, a refocusing of a character’s actions?
Return, as in going back or coming back? Who are you waiting for to return to you? Or return as in election result? Happy returns? A yield or a gain as in financial returns? Or a return ticket for a two-way trip, a kind of reciprocity, as in returning a favor? Or returning to a different time in one’s mind, a kind of nostalgia.
Make a LIST of ways to use RETURN for or from your life or for or from the lives of your characters.
Make a LIST of what might be returned or returned to? Are regrets involved? Is there a need to redo something only differently this time? Is there a lost land that is longed for?
Is return possible? How do the characters involved feel about returning? Are there memories involved? Can a return create or solve a problem in the story?
How is RETURN a metaphor? Imagine some of the sensory components of the return - taste and smell especially. Let yourself or your characters experience a memory of Return or a future possibility or a promise of Return allowing there to be consequences from it, an event.
Let all the senses weigh in on that, and see where it takes you.
3 Winter Classes via Zoom:
Magical Dialogue Sunday February 23rd 2 PM - 5 PM ET The Artistic Statement Seminar Saturday March 1st 2 PM - 5 PM ET (this fills fast & only has a few spots left, whether or not you need one for applications, to help you get to know yourself better) Events & Reversals Sunday March 9th 2 PM - 5 PM ET More Info Here Testimonials Here!
Brave Space Schedule:
2/20 Thursday 7pm ET Brave Group Coaching - TONIGHT! for anyone looking to create more ease for their nervous system and learn about parts work 2/21 Friday 12pm ET Brave Space 2/23 Sunday 2pm ET Magical Dialogue Sunday 6pm ET All Human Brave Space 2/24 Monday 12pm ET Brave Space 2/25 Tuesday 12pm ET Brave Space w/workshop 2/26 another day of training for me! No Brave Space 2/27 Thursday 7pm ET Brave Group Coaching 2/28 Friday 12pm ET Brave Space Friday 3pm ET Brave Sharing Salon 3/1 Saturday 2pm ET Artistic Statement Seminar 3/2 Sunday 6pm ET All Human Brave Space 3/3 Monday 12pm ET Brave Space 3/4 Tuesday 12pm ET Brave Space w/workshop 3/5 Wednesday 12pm ET Brave Space 3/6 Thursday 7pm ET Brave Group Coaching 3/7 Friday 12pm ET Brave Space 3/9 Sunday 2pm ET Events & Reversals Workshop Sunday 6pm ET All Human Brave Space 3/10 Monday 12pm ET Brave Space 3/11 Tuesday 12pm ET Brave Space w/workshop 3/12 Wednesday 12pm ET Brave Space 3/13 Thursday 7pm ET Brave Group Coaching 3/14 Friday 12pm ET Brave Space Each week Tuesdays include fast feedback for up to 1 page (@300 words) of writing or to discuss a craft issue/get help on your project. Each month there are 2 Sharing Salons: Second Sundays (730pm ET) and Final Fridays (3pm ET) for sharing up to 10 minutes of work (up to 1500 words).
artwork by Scott Sherman at ScottShermanStudio on Instagram
Opportunities:
Play the game of Telephone for all kinds of writers and artists, a global community of responses. (I’m loving it!)
Women in the Arts & Media have a list of opps you can sign up to get monthly.
For poets, sign up for Angela T. Carr’s Wordbox with monthly opps & much more!
For Queer Playwrights in the MidAtlantic Region, The Strides Collective Commission application is open til February 23, apply here!
Ghost City Press publishes 10 pages of poetry in micro-chapbooks, submit by February 28th. (No Sim Subs)
February 28: *NEW* Columbia Center for Science and Society Environmental Humanities Grants Applications
Clubbed Thumb's New Play Commission due March 20th!
Due April 1st, T. Schreiber Studios wants short plays on the theme “It Happened to Me.” There is a $5 submission fee, but if selected, they pay a small stipend ($100) and your work is produced in NYC in June. (I did this a few years ago with them, and they produced the plays at Theatre Row, but venues may vary.)
Pittsburgh New Works seeks one-act plays for their 2025 season of world premieres. 15 to 20 plays will be selected as full productions or readings. Read their guidelines (they have changed somewhat) and if your play qualifies, submit it no later than Sunday, April 6!
For 10-30 min plays for The ReOrient Festival (about the Middle East Or by Middle Eastern writers) til April 30th more info / submit
April 1: *NEW* The Democracy Cycle 2025 Open Call
Amazing People Doing Amazing Things:
If you’re in NYC and looking for the best self-defense class, PREPARE changed my life! I highly recommend them. If you ask, for groups/schools, they might travel.
SUR: The Trojan Women Project Sat. 3/29 to 4/6 in New York @ LA MAMA'S ELLEN STEWART THEATRE. https://www.lamama.org/sur/ or more info here
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Audrey Cephaly has written a great Substack on How to Write the 10 Minute Play - I highly recommend her Substack every day, but especially this one.
Jennifer Kircher Carr has written An Ode to Melodrama for all kinds of writers. I think it’s worth a read if you want to move your readers/audience.
TOUCH a new play by Lori Goodman directed by Janice L. Goldberg will run at The Tank, 2/20 - 3/16. With the inimitable Carole Foreman in the lead role! Sit w/me 3/8
Take a Poetry Workshop with Only Poems.
Beautiful essay on grief and writing by Raven Leilani
A Discovery Draft makes so much sense, thank you! I tend to think of first drafts as 'stubs' -- little cuttings from which hopefully something will grow.
I absolutely love identifying the draft in that way. It makes it less "evil" in a sense. I'll use it with my college students, too!