Starting a Second Draft

So you finished the first draft, now what?

Today I share some thoughts about where to begin for Draft 2. Because if we jump in and start editing out the weird bits before we sit with what is so uncomfortable about them, and why are we so desperate to tidy them up, we’re going to lose that deeper insight. We won’t discover the gift of understanding the more shadowy depths of this play that could be explored through a second draft process.

I speak about: 

• The difference between a genuine artistic impulse and our inner editor.

• Setting aside the impulse to jump in and start ‘fixing’ things.

• Consider what the messy parts of your draft might reveal about the ideas underneath your idea.

• Discovering the shadowy parts of your draft that are hiding in the corner or under the bed.

• Letting the strangeness feel welcome in your story, even if you’re not totally comfortable with it being there.

• How scary it can feel when more and more of our ideas become known to us, and we discover parts of it that make us squirm. 

• If your first draft isn’t messy, then perhaps you’re hiding your mess from yourself? 

Thank you for listening! This is an independently produced podcast which means I do all of it myself. Rating and reviewing is a really friendly way to show your support.

If you’re interested in working with me as your dramaturg then send me an email at emily@emilysheehan.info. 

You can learn more about my work on my about page or say hi and ask me a question via @emilysheehan__ on Instagram.

Table Reads With Actors

Today I’m speaking about the benefits of hearing your script read aloud in a group environment and some methods for getting useful feedback on your play.

I recently finished a polished first draft of a new play, and organising a table read with actors was a key part of moving the draft into its next iteration. 


I speak about:

• The similarities between playwriting and music composition, and why we need to hear our words read aloud.

• Methods for giving and receiving feedback in a group environment.

• Knowing when you’re ready to discuss your ideas and unpack aspects of your play in a group environment. 

• The concept of ‘works in progress’ in your artistic pursuits as well as more broadly in your life.

• Types of table reads and how they’re used as a tool at different phases of the creative process. 

• Using table reads and development discussions to find those gemstone notes that will unlock that next iteration of your play.

• Tips for making table reads run smoothly.

• Prompts and questions to ask for areas of playwriting craft you might like to get feedback on.


I reference:

• Episode 9 Dramaturgy, Feedback and Implementing Notes

• ‘The Critical Response Process’ by Liz Lerman and John Borstel

• ‘The Director’s Craft’ by Katie Mitchell  

Thank you for listening! This is an independently produced podcast which means I do all of it, end-to-end, myself. Rating and reviewing is a really friendly way to show your support.

If you’re interested in working with me as your dramaturg then send me an email at emily@emilysheehan.info. You can learn more about my work on my about page or say hi and ask me a question via @emilysheehan__ on Instagram. 


Special thanks today to Ashton Sly, Joshua Monaghan and Danny Carroll.

Writing Habits to Overcome Procrastination

Today I share the habits that have helped me overcome procrastination and get back on track to finishing a polished first draft before the end of the year.

I speak about:

• The fatigue of continuous self-motivation.

• Creating manageable and meaningful goals worthy of pursuing regardless of the outcome.

• Deciding on a lighthouse to 'sail towards' for this draft only (knowing you can always change course in the following draft).

• Discovering what habit cues support a fulfilling writing session for you (everyone's different). And what cues in your environment distract or delay your writing sessions.

• How to switch between intrinsic and extrinsic rewards.

• Minimising multitasking on writing days - something Twyla Tharp goes into in her book 'The Creative Habit'.

• Building up our tolerance for solitude.

• Using meditation and mindfulness to better hear the voice of our work.

I reference:

• Episode 24 Playwriting and Procrastination

• The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp

• Dr Rebecca Ray 'Breakthrough' podcast on Audible

Thank you for listening! This is an independently produced podcast which means I do all of it, end-to-end, myself. Rating or reviewing is a really friendly way to show your support.

You can learn more about my plays here or say hi and ask me a question via @emilysheehan__ on Instagram.

If you’re interested in working with me as your dramaturg then send me an email at emily@emilysheehan.info.

Playwriting and Procrastination

This month I look at procrastination as part of the writing process. I consider both the micro and macro ways it shows up in our specific projects, our creative process and our life as an artist. I speak about:

• Shame and the procrastination loop.

• Worrying, avoiding and anxiety’s relationship to procrastination.

• The desire to do something that we love beautifully.

• Delaying moving from one phase of a creative process to the next.

• Journaling as a tool to discover which part of yourself is procrastinating; the human, the artist or the project?

• Artistic detachment as a cause of procrastination.

• Creative scar tissue from past projects.

• Feeling behind - as a result of procrastinating and a cause of procrastination. As well as the loop of procrastinating, feeling behind, getting stressed, then procrastinating because facing that we’re ‘behind’ is too painful.

References:

The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron

Playwright’s Process Podcast Episode 15 'The Artist's Way' Weeks 1-4

Thank you for listening. You can learn more about my work on my about page or say hi and ask me a question via @emilysheehan__ on Instagram.

If you’re interested in working with me as your dramaturg then send me an email at emily@emilysheehan.info.

The Art of Baking Bread

In this episode I share how baking bread is a useful metaphor for writing a first draft. Both bread making and playwriting are an illusive combination of raw materials, method, mastery and luck. The final outcome depends on factors we can't even see.

The writing process can be illusive. It can be hard to find language to articulate your experience. So when we grasp onto metaphors that mirror the creative process, it can give us new insights into our craft and help us speak about our writing.

I speak about:

• The ingredients - the humble raw materials we want to transform into a cohesive draft.

• Similar raw materials will behave differently depending on context.

• Activating the yeast - a live organism that gets things going. Yeasts ‘aliveness’ is key. What small piece of life are you delicately incorporating into this draft?

• Kneading the dough - working with the materials to shape them into a smooth, silky dough. This takes work. There’s a physicality and effort involved at this part of the process.

• The word ‘fiction’ and ‘dough’ share a root word that means to shape by hand.

• Let the dough rest - once you get the texture you're after you need to step away so it can rest. The dough won’t rise unless you leave it alone. This makes a key piece of the puzzle is time. Time to let things happen. Time to let the yeast come to life.

• The environment in which you rest your dough matters. The context affects the process. The skills of the bread maker is to be sensitive to this, and adapt and adjust to the environment.

• Kneading the dough again - intuiting the exact moment to begin working with it again.

• Letting the dough rest again - going back and forth between kneading and resting depending on what you’re making.

• Baking - not wanting to put your work into the world half baked, but there is a risk of leaving it in the oven so long that you over cook it and it gets burned. Timing is key.

Thank you for listening. You can learn more about my work on my about page or say hi and ask me a question via @emilysheehan__ on Instagram.

If you’re interested in working with me as your dramaturg then send me an email at emily@emilysheehan.info.

Writing a Draft Zero

‘Draft Zeros’ ‘Discovery Drafts’ ‘Dirty Drafts’... In this episode I share how writing a draft zero has really helped me move my play into its next phase of development. I think the biggest distinction between a Draft 0 and a Draft 1 is that a first draft needs to be written to a standard where someone else can respond to it. Whereas a draft zero is a way to tell yourself the story during its very infant phase.

I speak about:

• The difference between a draft zero and first draft.

• The purpose of a draft zero.

• Realising I wasn’t really ‘on my way’ to meeting my own personal writing goals this year.

• Finding a deadline that’s both meaningful and manageable. 

• How I created a very loose structure for my play and very simple writing plan to follow.

• What to do with all the initial exploratory pages, scraps of scenes, process journal entries and story work I had already created.

• Using each writing session to write through the very strange, very bizarre rollercoaster of a draft zero without going back to fix, change, polish, or edit.

Draft zeros are kind of like therapy - you just need to get it all out and surprise yourself with what you begin to excavate. You don’t want to tidy up the mess before you get to what the heart of this thing is really about.

Things I reference: Miro online whiteboard, Mark Ravenhill’s 37 Plays Podcast and Episode 20 Writing the Next Thing. 

Thank you for listening. You can learn more about my work on my About page or say hi at @emilysheehan__ on Instagram.

Beautiful Possibility

A chat about playwriting, dramaturgy and the ups and downs of pursuing the life of a writer with author Gillian Jakob Kieser on the Beautiful Possibility podcast.

Today’s episode is a replay of my recent interview on the Beautiful Possibility podcast. We speak about the process of coaxing a story into existence - the inspiration, the daily practice, and the many ways in which we create, interrogate, and refine our work. We also speak about the very personal and non-linear process of discovering the stories and themes that want to be explored through you. And the personal thematics within your own life that find their way into your writing.

If you’re interested in working with me as your dramaturg then send me an email at emily@emilysheehan.info. 

Listen to all of Gillian’s episodes on the Beautiful Possibility podcast and read her book 10,000 Doors.

Tracking Progress in Early Drafts

Tracking progress in the early phase of a project is pretty nebulous. What you’re tracking isn’t always clear, because how your ideas develop might not be observable. 

An image I find helpful to keep in mind in early ideation is approaching the idea like an iceberg. 90% of an iceberg is  beneath the surface. We can’t see it, but we know that it’s there. So most of the ‘progress’ we make in Draft 0 is becoming more and more conscious of the depths of your idea. And finding ways to inspire and develop your unconscious connection with the story.

What is usually my go-to 'meaningful unit of progress' (3 x 30min writing sprints per writing day) isn’t helpful right now. So with that in mind, I’ve been finding more appropriate ways to work on my idea.

In this episode I share what I’ve been finding useful to develop the idea in the ideation phase. I talk about:

• Removing as many of the obstacles as you can.

• Tracking how your resistance shifts at different phases of the project.

• Committing to the habit over the outcome. 

• Swapping out my usual writing sprints with other ways of working on the idea.

• Creating a list of non-prescriptive, enjoyable, artistic tasks to move between.

• Bouncing between research, reading source material, analysing play texts, deep story work on the dramatic world, the characters and the locations, process journaling, and writing the story in prose.

Favourite episodes you might like to go back to listen to:

• Episode 19. Writing the Next Thing

• Episode 13. Finishing Creative Projects

• Episode 12. Managing Research Draft to Draft


• Episode 11. Writing to a Deadline


• Episode 9. Dramaturgy, Feedback and Implementing Notes


• Episode 7. Motivation and Momentum 


Thank you for listening. You can learn more about my work on my About page or say hi and ask me a question via @emilysheehan__ on Instagram.

Writing the Next Thing

I’ve started work on a new play. This month’s podcast is about what’s been helpful and supportive as I’ve taken the very first steps to develop my next idea. I speak about:

• Bringing more attention to areas of influence and inspiration that are already capturing your attention.

• Brainstorming and freewriting on the themes, genres, central relationships and formal references you’re most drawn to at the moment.

• Noticing the threads and patterns and finding ways to draw them together.

• Prompts I used in my process journal to develop these different threads further.

• Writing prose before trying to write scenes. 

• Letting the themes guide the content I was consuming (audiobooks, podcasts, radio etc) and creating a thematic container in day-to-day life.

• 'Writing under the influence' of what you let in.

• You have to begin with what’s on your heart to write and trust that good writing is the stuff of multiple drafts, not perfect ideas.

Resources: I also speak about themes and creating thematic containers in Episode 12 Managing Research Draft to Draft.

Thank you for listening. Learn more about my work on my about page or say hi and ask me a question via @emilysheehan__ on Instagram.

Oops! I'm Drafting Again

In the background I’ve been reworking some aspects of the play I finished last year, so this podcast is about diving back into writing projects after an extended amount of time away. I speak about:

• Reading your own work at the same time of day you prefer to write in, as your mood and your energy levels can affect how you perceive the text.

• Using a creative process journal or project workbook.

• Listing out the events of your play (i.e. things that significantly alter the dramatic action or the trajectory of a character)

• Using index cards to physicalise the structure.

• Dramaturgy, feedback and implementing notes.

• Prioritising rewrites by asking, ‘Which changes will impact the story the most?’ Start there, rather than going for quick wins.

• The magic of asking, ‘Do I have everything I need to take the next step?’ Then keeping it simple and taking one step at a time.

Thank you for listening. You can learn more about my work on my about page or say hi and ask me a question via @emilysheehan__ on Instagram.

‘The Artist's Way’ Weeks 5-8

It’s Part 2 of my summer project, which is completing ‘The Artist’s Way’ by Julia Cameron. In this episode I debrief on Weeks 5-8 of ‘The Artist’s Way’ and speak about: 

• Showing up to create even when you’re not feeling yourself.

• ‘Feeling behind’ versus allowing time to be elastic.


Week 5 | Possibility 

• Exploring what might be possible for our projects, our craft, our collaborations, our platform.


• Uncovering the ways we might limit what’s possible for our art and our creative expression.

• Reframing what being ‘self-destructive’ can look like and making sure we’re not undermining our progress.
- Ugly duckling phases of growth - we can’t ‘look good’ all the time, especially if we’re exploring new territory.


Week 6 | Abundance

• Cultivating a rich and enriching arts practise that’s well-resourced, and finding new ways to make our creative process spacious, generous and luxurious.


• Bringing more sensorial beauty and sensorial stimulus into your writing routine.


• Noticing if we’re being unnecessarily stingy with ourselves. Something we think, ‘Well, if I were a ‘real’ writer I'd be able to write with this crappy pen and broken laptop and it shouldn’t affect the art.’ Well yes, but also are withholding tools that could make your process more enjoyable?

• The arts don’t have to be productive and efficient all the time. Neither does your creative practice. You’re allowed to be indulgent, inefficient, meandering and luxurious. 


Week 7 | Connection

• Practising deeply listening to ourselves, our muses, our ideas to connect more intimately with our writing.


• How perfectionism is pervasive, adds noise, and crowds out our ability to listen to ourselves. 


• The gap between your taste and your abilities. Trusting that you got into this work because you have killer taste and all you need is time for your abilities to match your taste levels (Ira Glass quote below).


• Jealousy is just another way to listen to yourself and connect with the deeper desires in your heart.

Week 8 | Strength

• Setting goals.


• Committing to tiny steps, taken consistently, that are going to add up. This is the ‘bread and butter’ of your project.


• It takes a lot of strength and courage to consistently show up (often privately, often quietly) and repeat this again and again.

References:

Ira Glass quote: “Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.” ― Ira Glass

Thank you for listening. You can learn more about me on my about page or say hi and ask me a question via @emilysheehan__ on Instagram.

‘The Artist’s Way’ Weeks 1-4

It’s my first episode of 2022 and I’m talking about my summer project; completing ‘The Artist’s Way’ by Julia Cameron. In this episode I debrief on Weeks 1-4 of ‘The Artist’s Way’ and speak about:

• Using ‘The Artist’s Way’ as a reset between major writing projects.

• How ‘The Artist Way’ works. It's 12 weeks worth of essays, journal prompts and assignments on a particular theme related to creativity.

Morning Pages

• Committing to daily journaling for the full 12 weeks.

• Using journaling as part of my writing practice.

• How journaling helps me to be in conversation with the themes and narrative threads of my play.

• Switching between my ‘Artistic Self’, ‘Personal Self’ or ‘The Voice of my Project’ as a way to focus my journaling.

• Discipline to not letting my anxious thoughts hijack my journal sessions as a way to ‘stress out’ on the page.

Artist Dates

• Committing to a weekly date with your artistic self.

• Consider yourself in a long-term, romantic relationship with your inner artist. If this is true, how would you romance your artist, treasure your artist and listen to what they’re inspired by?

Week 1 | Safety

• Exploring your creativity and the work you want to make less fearfully.

• Creating your own affirmations using these steps: 1. Complete the sentence ‘I (name) am a brilliant and prolific (artform)’. 2. Notice what thoughts you use to shut yourself down after completing this sentence. 3. For each negative thought, write an alternative statement in defence of yourself.

Week 2 | Identity

• Exploring your identity as an artist and how you define yourself and the work you make.

• Taking baby steps in your artistic identity. Our ego wants grand gestures and to overhaul our identity before we try something new artistically.

• The magic is in small steps, tiny progress and bare minimums.

Week 3 | Power

• Creative scar tissue. There can be anger and pain and disappointment once you get some skin in the game. Sometimes this makes us less open-minded about what’s possible for ourselves and our work.

• Creative detachment. Sometimes when we get closer to finishing projects we can pull away or detach emotionally from the work. Be suspicious of indifference about your own work. Reinvest!

Week 4 | Integrity

• Having the integrity to take action on any new artistic self-awareness.

• Playing the long game. Each decade can hold meaningful and significant artistic work for you to create.

• Expanding your idea of what body of work you could create across a lifetime.

You can learn more about my work on my About page or say hi and ask me a question via @emilysheehan__ on Instagram.

Creative Resets Between Projects

There are many points in an artistic timeline when you might need a creative reset. I’m currently in the threshold between one creative project and the next and in this episode I talk about:

• Resting and recharging without letting go of the habits and routines built by writing to a deadline.

• When moving from one project to the next feels like departing from a piece of yourself.

• Not letting life fill up the space I usually guard for writing.

• Taking an intentional pause between work. As writers we use space and silence in our text because an absence of dialogue allows the subtext to be felt. I hope this same absence of a project can allow my own deeper themes of where I'm at now rise to the surface and inform what I'm inspired and moved by at this point in time.

• SUMMER PROJECTS: ‘The Artist's Way' by Julia Cameron. I'll be making my way through the twelve-weeks of creative prompts in this book over summer. If you want to join me in using this as a creative reset, please do.

Thank you so much for listening. If this is your first time listening to the podcast, then some of my favourite Episodes are:

• Episode 7. Motivation and Momentum 

• Episode 9. Dramaturgy, Feedback and Implementing Notes

• Episode 11. Writing to a Deadline

• Episode 12. Managing Research Draft to Draft

• Episode 13. Finishing Creative Projects

This episode was originally recorded in November 2021. You can watch the video diary here: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CWuhUDYFhG7/.

You can learn more about my work on my About page or say hi and ask me a question via @emilysheehan__ on Instagram.

Finishing Creative Projects

I finished my play! Today's episode is about finishing creative projects and all of the decisions and mental shifts that happen as you work towards getting to the end of a major work. 

I speak about:

• Mindset and making a commitment to finishing an artistic project.

• Making it the best version of the story it already is and not leaving things open for the other versions it could become.

• Realising I was writing in a way that was leaving the draft open to future changes I ultimately wouldn’t be making. So instead, I started to write in a way that closed down those options.

• Grieving the versions it's not going to become.

• Effort in versus distance travelled. Each new draft feels like travelling half way towards an end point, and eventually moving half way becomes impossible/invisible which is when you realise you've 'arrived' at your final draft.

• Hitting a point where edits are only making the creative work 'different' rather than 'better'.

• Getting feedback towards the tail end of a project and the difference between: Feedback we agree with and we take, feedback we agree with and we don't take, feedback we don't agree with and we take, and feedback we don't agree with and we don't take.

• Deciding which parts of the project are worth getting right and which parts you're comfortable having some wonky bits, because perfection isn’t the purpose of art.

• There are always going to be things about your project that aren't perfect. Sometimes we think perfecting everything will protect us from criticism, but that's not true. It's up to us as artists to decide what about our project we're comfortable with leaving 'imperfect' and loving it anyway.

This episode was originally recorded in October 2021. You can watch the video diary here: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CVWXA4Rh14g/

You can learn more about my About page or say hi and ask me a question via @emilysheehan__ on Instagram.

Managing Research Draft to Draft

Today’s episode is about how I've used research to inform the content and themes of my play. What’s been useful to research - and the tools and exercises I've used - have been different from draft to draft. So in today’s episode I speak about how it’s played a different role in Draft 1, Draft 2 and Draft 3. I cover:

Draft 1

• Letting the themes guide the content I was consuming (audiobooks, podcasts, radio interviews etc) and letting them be on in the background during my day-to-day life. 

• Consciously curating a thematic container.

• Journaling on the themes as I was writing.

• 'Writing under the influence' of what you let in.

Draft 2

• Imposter syndrome.

• Letting content guide the research - knowing the difference between details that the narrative hinges on versus details that become the backdrop for a more human/universal moment or scene to take place.

• My process for using brackets in the text to flag the details you need to research later. 

• In the middle of a writing session is not the time to research a small detail.

Draft 3

• Asking people who live and breathe the world of the play to note any red flags.

• Making sure all the small details are cohesive and speak to the heart of the story.

• 'Furnishing' the play in a way that's well-researched. This can be so fun and satisfying if you do it at the end of the process. If I did this in Draft 1 it would be way too overwhelming and feel like a test.

This episode was originally recorded in September 2021. You can watch the video diary here: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CT6HtOblSxl/

You can learn more about my work on my About page or say hi and ask me a question via @emilysheehan__ on Instagram.

Writing to a Deadline

I’m working towards a deadline for my final draft (Draft 3) of my play and using every spare pocket of time to make it happen. Working in this intensive, focused way has been unique to other parts of the writing process so in this episode I speak about what has been helpful and unhelpful in managing my time, my brain and my emotions in this final stretch of the project. I speak about:

• Not rushing through your process even though you're on a deadline.

• Trusting the habits you’ve built already and depending on the routines and writing rituals that work for you. Don’t throw them out the window now that you need to ‘go faster’.

• Creating a goal that is more meaningful and motivating than ‘get to the end’ or ‘finish my play’.

• Leaning on my new goal of ‘continuing to deepen and master my craft’ to guide each writing session. This helped reframe the minutiae of the notes I had to implement as I was willing to put in the work to become a better writer beyond the outcome of this project.

• The magic of asking myself, ‘Do I have everything I need to take the next step?’ and recommitting step by step.

• Leaps of faith when you hit a block and feel overwhelmed. Be willing to believe you will pull this off.

• Writing when you’re not in the mood to write. My capacity to handle discomfort and to keep writing when my mood wasn’t ideal was key. 

• Writing treats. For me that means stationary and snacks.

• Being conscious of the media and entertainment I was consuming and staying in the genre of my work just for the period of getting to the end of my play. 

References:
Episode 9. Dramaturgy, Feedback and Implementing Notes - for my workflow and process for working with feedback.

This episode was originally recorded in August 2021. You can watch the video diary here: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CStcGi7JWht

You can learn more about my work on my website http://www.emilysheehan.info or say hi and ask me a question via @emilysheehan__ on Instagram.

Creative Pace, Timing and Patience

I’ve been thinking a lot about pace and timing this month as each draft of my play has required a completely different creative pace. In this episode I talk about:

• Different drafts require a different pace. 

• Our inner artist requires a different pace in different seasons of projects. 

• Anxiety and our relationship to time.

• The story we tell ourselves about the pace our project is moving at. Do you feel better about your writing when it’s coming along quickly? Are you patient with the slower parts of the project that are more about hours spent than outcome?

• Working consistently versus only working in 'favourable conditions'. 

• When pace impacts how successful I feel.

• For myself, fitting in small amounts of writing more often gets me further than waiting for chances to do big creative marathons. Even though this is true, I so rarely celebrate chipping away and often only allow myself to feel successful after a marathon effort.

• Meaningful progress can’t always be measured and yet we still need to tend to our ideas as if they are progressing.

• Allowing our ideas to reveal themselves to us on their own timing. Maybe, like people, our ideas feel shy and introverted some days and more extroverted and talkative on other days. So we need to develop a patient relationship with our project.

This episode was originally recorded in June 2021. You can watch the video diary here: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CQwrSWaD7zr

You can learn more about my work on my About page or say hi and ask me a question via @emilysheehan__ on Instagram.

Dramaturgy, Feedback and Implementing Notes

I’ve just finished implementing a round of notes on a completed second draft, so thought I would talk a bit about dramaturgy and working with feedback in today’s episode. I cover:

- Dramaturgy as a way to bring your project closer to your vision for the work.
- Closing the gap between your intentions as an author and what’s coming across on the page.
- The difference between the feedback you hear and the feedback that is actually given.
- Why I always record feedback and note sessions.
- Being asked good, dramaturgical questions forces you to articulate yourself in ways you haven't before, and this can reveal a new depth and new intellectual or emotional connections to your project.
- Taking the time to give yourself notes as if you were a writer you were working with. This can change how you approach the feedback you give yourself and force you to be more specific and thoughtful. Give yourself the best of yourself.
- Reading your own work at the same time of day you prefer to write in, as the mood you’re in and your energy levels can affect how you perceive the writing.
- Organising feedback and prioritising notes by asking, ‘Which changes will impact the story the most?’ Start there, rather than going for quick wins.
- Breaking feedback down into achievable sections.
- Typing directly into the draft when making changes can have a weight of expectation, so I like to copy the section I’m working on into a blank document and make any changes in there to stay playful and open to new discoveries. 

References:
Episode 5. Rewrites and Revision - for my process on rewrites and writing new material.

This episode was originally recorded in May 2021. You can watch the video diary here: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CPcogHwHc1A

You can learn more about my work on my About page or say hi and ask me a question via @emilysheehan__ on Instagram.

Plotting Draft 1 vs Draft 2

If you haven’t worked out what happens in your story in your first draft, don’t despair. I’m finding plotting the second draft so much smoother than I was expecting. The more you go on, and the more you know the story, the easier it is to make your project what you want it to be.

In today’s episode I talk about plotting, as Draft 1 and 2 are uniquely different experiences. I speak about:

- Planning the story.
- The 'good enough' plan is far more useful than the ‘ideal’ plan.
- Imagining the idealised version of our story doesn't make enough room for the shitty scenes and less-than-average moments that will inevitably show up in a first draft.
- The route we take through a story depends on our taste as a writer.
- Getting stuck in the first 20-page loop of rewrites.
- When we hit a point in the story that isn't where we thought we were headed, don't be tempted to head back to the beginning and start over with a new plan. Keep going and know you can take a different path next draft.
- Getting to the end before you start changing things. Then you have an embodied knowledge of your story to work with (not just an imagined concept of what would/wouldn’t have worked).
- The beauty of straying from the path in Draft 2 is you can take detours depending on your taste and aesthetic.
- You have decisions available in Draft 2 that are only possible because you've walked through it once already.  

This episode was originally recorded in April 2021. You can watch the video diary here: https://www.instagram.com/tv/COWaftSHI7u

You can learn more about my work on my website http://www.emilysheehan.info or say hi and ask me a question via @emilysheehan__ on Instagram.