Write With Ozzy

Tag: drafts

  • There’s No Such Thing as a Wasted Draft

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    by

    Ozzy
    in

    I’ve got entire folders full of unfinished stories. Scenes that trail off. Characters who never made it past chapter three. Worlds built and then left behind. Ideas that sparked brightly and then just… faded. I have a trilogy, the first ‘real’ writing I ever started – a full draft of book one, outlines for books…

  • Job #1: Tell the Story

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    by

    Ozzy
    in ,

    It’s easy to get lost in the details. The structure. The pacing. The world-building. The themes. The voice. The rhythm of your prose. The way the light hits the side of the coffee cup in chapter two. All of that matters. Eventually. But your first responsibility—the one thing you have to do before any of…

  • Perspective and Tense: Who and When?

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    by

    Ozzy
    in ,

    First person? Third? Where’s the second? Tense? I’m getting tense just thinking about all this!

  • Your First Draft is NOT your Book

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    by

    Ozzy
    in

    There’s a secret about writing that every novice writer needs to hear: your first draft is supposed to be bad. Not just imperfect, not just messy. BAD bad. Its job is simply to exist, so you have something to work on.  It’s a block of raw material, a rough sketch, a first attempt at capturing…