“The 90/10 Rule for Authors: Why Writing the First Draft Comes Before Perfection.”

“The 90/10 Rule for Authors: Why Writing the First Draft Comes Before Perfection.” 

There is something I have told new writers for years:

You could be the best writer in the world.

The book you are thinking about writing could have the potential to become a New York Times bestseller. Your story could be powerful, entertaining, educational, emotional, or even life-changing.

But if you never find the time to plant your behind in a chair and write it, no one will ever know.

No one will know how well you write.

No one will know how engaging your story might have been.

And no one can read a book that never makes it out of your head and onto the page.

That is why I believe one of the most important qualities of a good writer is not brilliance, perfect grammar, a huge vocabulary, or even natural talent.

It is the ability to sit down and write.

The First Draft Has Only One Job

Many beginning writers make writing harder than it needs to be because they sit down believing they are supposed to produce a perfect book on the first try.

That is an enormous burden to place on yourself.

Your first draft does not have to be perfect.

It does not even have to be particularly good.

It simply has to exist.

Think of the first draft as building the frame of a house. You are putting up the walls, deciding where the rooms belong, and giving the structure a recognizable shape.

The decorating comes later.

Editing comes later.

Rewriting comes later.

Research can be checked again later.

Sentences can be polished later.

Characters can be strengthened later.

But you cannot revise a blank page.

The first goal is simply to get the story written.

What About the 90/10 Rule?

You may hear people in publishing talk about something called the 90/10 rule.

One common version says that perhaps only 10 percent of a book's commercial success comes from writing the book itself, while as much as 90 percent depends on marketing, promotion, visibility, and building an audience.

I would not treat those percentages as a scientific formula. Publishing rarely works that neatly.

But the basic message is worth thinking about.

Writing a good book is only part of becoming a successful author.

Readers first have to discover that the book exists.

Millions of books are competing for attention. A wonderful book sitting quietly on an online bookstore page may remain invisible unless the author, publisher, readers, reviewers, or others help bring attention to it.

That means today's author may eventually have to think about websites, blogs, newsletters, social media, book pages, interviews, advertising, book clubs, reviews, personal appearances, and word of mouth.

But notice the word eventually.

You cannot market the book you never finished.

My Version of the 90/10 Rule

For the beginning writer, I would offer another way of looking at 90/10.

Spend 90 percent of your early energy getting the story out of your head and onto the page.

Spend about 10 percent worrying about whether everything sounds perfect.

Perfection belongs to rewriting.

Creation belongs to the first draft.

Too many potentially good books die because their writers keep stopping every few sentences to judge themselves.

Is this good enough?

Will anybody buy this?

Is my grammar perfect?

Has somebody already written something similar?

Would a publisher accept this?

Could this become a bestseller?

Those questions may matter later.

During the first draft, they can become roadblocks.

Sometimes the most productive thing a writer can do is give himself or herself permission to write badly for a while.

Keep moving.

Finish the chapter.

Finish the scene.

Finish the story.

Then go back and make it better.

Writing Is Also a Business

There is another reason the 90/10 rule gets discussed among authors.

Publishing is both creativity and business.

Traditional publishers have long understood that a relatively small number of bestselling books can sometimes account for a very large percentage of sales. Independent authors face a similar reality from another direction: writing the book is only the beginning.

Once the manuscript is completed, other questions arrive.

Who is the reader?

What makes this book different?

How will people discover it?

What does the cover communicate?

Is the description interesting?

Where does the author already have an audience?

What reason will someone have to recommend the book to someone else?

Those are important questions.

But they are questions for a writer who has something to sell.

Before you become the marketer, publisher, promoter, advertiser, and salesperson, you must first become the writer.

The Other 90/10 Rule: Stop Selling All the Time

There is also a useful 90/10 idea when it comes to social media.

Some marketing professionals recommend that roughly 90 percent of what an author shares should provide something useful, interesting, educational, entertaining, or personally engaging, while only about 10 percent should directly ask people to buy something.

That makes sense to me.

People usually do not follow authors because they want to see an advertisement every day.

They follow because they enjoy the author's ideas, stories, personality, knowledge, humor, encouragement, or perspective.

Give readers a reason to know you before constantly asking them to buy from you.

That is one reason I believe blogging can still be valuable for writers.

A blog allows an author to talk about the journey, share knowledge, discuss books, encourage new writers, tell stories, and gradually introduce readers to the work being created.

Your Great Book Starts With an Ordinary Day

Most books do not begin with trumpets sounding and somebody announcing:

"Today I will begin my masterpiece."

They often begin much more quietly.

Someone sits down.

They open a notebook or computer.

They write a paragraph.

Then another.

Maybe they write badly that day.

Maybe they write beautifully.

Maybe they only finish two pages.

But the book has begun.

And tomorrow they can add more.

That is the part of writing we sometimes underestimate.

Books are built out of ordinary writing sessions.

Page after page.

Chapter after chapter.

Day after day.

You may have a bestseller living inside your imagination right now.

You may have a family story that deserves to be preserved.

You may have a novel nobody else could write because nobody else has lived your experiences, imagined your characters, or sees the world quite the way you do.

But there is only one way we will ever find out.

Sit down.

Write the first page.

Do not try to make it perfect.

Try to make it exist.

Then write the next one.

That is how writers become writers.

And that is how books get written.

— Giftkone Publishing