I can tell you, as a professional writer who has written multiple New York Times Best Sellers, my first drafts are utter garbage. Worse than mediocre. They are terrible. But that doesn’t bother me, because I know I can edit them until they are not terrible. The Barbara Kingsolver quote tells it all: 1. To begin, give yourself permission to write a bad book. 2. Revise until it’s not a bad book. THE WONDERS OF THE “VOMIT DRAFT” Many people struggle with giving themselves permission to write a mediocre first draft, so we developed a concept called the “vomit draft.” We literally call the first draft the “vomit draft.” This is because when you’re vomiting, you don’t care about looking beautiful or being elegant. When you’re vomiting, you just want to get it all out, because that’s the only way to get it over with. And the only way to get it all out is to keep going through the pain. What’s cool about the vomit draft is, unlike vomiting in front of people, your vomit draft is ONLY for you. You are the only person who will ever see it, and you will edit this before even your editor sees it. By focusing on just getting it out, it stops you from reading and editing as you go, which inevitably slows you down and stalls you. When you write something you think is garbage, just say, “That’s a problem for Future Tucker!” and keep moving. 140 · ThE SCriBE METhOD