January 1, 2025

A Writer's Hack for Life- How Fast Drafting Can Give You The Freedom To Be Who You Want To Be

This is my favorite time of year. 2025 stretches in front of us like a brand new notebook, waiting to be written in. 

This past fall I finished the first draft of my novel Bigger Than Versace. While I’ve come to enjoy all aspects of writing (even revisions!) the first draft is my favorite. I use a technique called Fast Drafting. This method requires you to “write forward” no matter how the story changes. If on page 50 you decide it wasn’t the mom who died tragically, but the dad, you don’t go back and change it. You continue writing as if the dad was dead all along. You decide it, and it’s done. This gives you the freedom to change your mind without wasting time going back and editing. It’s almost magical to decide on a new path, and immediately let go of how it used to be.

How does this apply to real life? Surprisingly well. If there is something you want to change about your life, you can- at any moment-make that change, and then live your life like it’s always been that way. 

In my young adult years I lost things. Keys, wallets, phone numbers. My talent for misplacing items became a joke among my family and friends. And then one day in college I decided I didn’t want to be that person. I decided I was the type of person who kept her purse in the same spot on the counter. Who organized her desk so she could find her homework. Who kept her room clean so she could find the clothes she wanted. I wiped my memory of decades of disorganization and focused on living forward. When I did lose something, I’d say, “That’s unusual. I hardly ever lose things.”

There are limits to this of course. Deciding you want to be a black belt in karate does not make you a black belt. But like a good friend of mine, you could let go of the 40 years you’ve ignored martial arts and choose from that moment on to be the type of person who goes to karate on Thursday nights. 

The idea is to free yourself of your history, make the changes you want in your life- whether it’s eating healthy, writing consistently, or learning a language- and then live as though you’ve been doing it the whole time. 

No matter your age, your life can still be a fresh notebook waiting for you to write the story. So much of what keeps us from changing is the voice in our head that says “that’s not who we are”. But- plot twist- we can change who we are anytime we want. It feels like magic, but sometimes magic looks a lot like deliberate choice. 

Keep turning pages,

Libby