What Staying in the Pre-Drafting Phase of the Writing Process for Longer Than I Ever Thought I Would Taught Me About Writing

I’ve wanted to write a novel for ten years.

Ten. Years.

In that time, I’ve started and abandoned drafts, fallen in and out of love with characters, built story worlds that now live in half-filled notebooks… but I never made it all the way to a cohesive, finished draft.

Last fall, I decided 2025 was the year I was going to change that. I wanted 2025 to be the year I’d finally write a novel I felt good about from start to finish. So I joined a novel-writing accountability group (which I’ll tell you more about in another post) to help keep me on track.

We started meeting in January, but the group’s official drafting phase didn’t begin until March. Which meant I spent those first couple of months in pre-drafting mode, a stage I once thought was just “planning lite” but turns out is basically the slow-cooker setting for story ideas.

And I’ll be honest: I was so tempted to start writing early. It took an almost ridiculous amount of willpower not to give in. Every time I got a scene idea, my fingers itched to open a blank document and go for it. But I stuck with the plan, and I’m glad I did.

At first, I thought I’d be writing a brand-new story that came to me last September. But somewhere between brainstorming, world-building, and staring into space with a cup of tea, I realized that wasn’t the book I was meant to write this year.

Another character was yelling louder: someone I first met in 2018 and have been thinking about (and occasionally writing bits of) ever since. Had I not spend weeks and weeks in this pre-writing phase, I would have started writing the wrong novel. (Again!)

By the time March rolled around, I wasn’t just ready to write—I was itching to get started. And the months I spent in pre-drafting phase of the writing process taught me a few things I didn’t see coming. Here's a closer look at the top lessons:

1) Thinking and 'scribbling' counts as writing

Before this year, I tended to think of writing as “words in the document.” If there was nothing new on the page, it didn’t feel like progress.

But spending months in pre-drafting made me realize that story-building happens in all kinds of invisible ways: the shower thoughts, the scribbles in the margins of a grocery list, the mental rewinds when you suddenly think, “No, that’s not what she’d do at all.”

Looking back, I can see that all those weeks of turning over scenes in my head and scribbling things down in my pre-drafting notebook were actually laying the foundation for my draft.

By the time I started drafting in March, I’d already “written” huge parts of the book in my imagination. The actual drafting became less about figuring everything out from scratch and more about transcribing what I already knew.

2) Story world clarity is a gift to your future self

One of the most frustrating parts of past drafting attempts was hitting a scene where I didn’t know some basic fact about my world, and then losing momentum while I scrambled to figure it out.

Worse, without a clear enough understanding of my setting, I sometimes wrote myself straight into corners or wandered off on tangents. In one case, I followed a tangent for nearly 30,000 words before realizing it didn’t belong in the book at all. It’s not a great feeling.

This time, I gave myself the luxury of thinking through the rules, nuances, and tone of my story world before drafting. It didn’t mean I knew every tiny detail in advance, but I had enough to keep writing without getting derailed. Future me was very, very grateful.

3) Key moments are like lighthouses

During pre-drafting, I worked out a handful of pivotal scenes that I knew would land somewhere in the story because they formed the foundational beats in my story arc. I called these my "lighthouse" scenes.

Having those lighthouses made drafting far less overwhelming because even when I wandered a bit in the "fog" of a scene, I always knew there was a bright point ahead to steer toward.

Having these in place gave me confidence to take detours and discover new things, knowing I wouldn’t lose the thread entirely.

4) Confidence grows in this phase

When I used to rush into drafting, I always felt like I was running to catch up with my own story. That constant scramble left me doubting whether I could really finish.

This time, the long pre-draft phase gave me a quiet sense of readiness I hadn’t experienced before. By the time March arrived, I knew my characters’ voices, their motivations, and the beats that would shape their arcs.

As a result, sitting down to draft didn’t feel like leaping into cold water. Instead, it felt like sliding into a current I’d been watching and studying for weeks, and I was ready for it.

5) First drafts don’t have to be garbage

I used to believe the “first drafts are supposed to be terrible” mantra. And while I agree they don’t have to be perfect, I learned that the more I prepared, the cleaner and more cohesive my draft could be from the start.

That doesn’t mean I didn’t have clunky sentences or scenes that needed to be cut. Of course I did. But the bones of my story were solid enough that revision felt exciting instead of exhausting. That was a completely new experience for me.

6) There’s a difference between simmering and stalling

There’s a fine line between letting a story develop and using “planning” as a way to avoid writing. I had to check in with myself regularly to be sure I was still building the story instead of hiding from the blank page.

One trick that helped: giving myself permission to scratch the itch... just not in the actual manuscript.

If a scene or bit of dialogue kept tugging at me, I’d freewrite it in my pre-drafting notebook. That way, I could explore the idea without breaking the “no drafting yet” boundary.

Sometimes those snippets made it into the book later, sometimes they didn’t, but the important thing was keeping the momentum alive while still honoring the slower, deliberate pace of pre-drafting.

7) Set a drafting date (and keep it)

If I hadn’t had a firm drafting date from my accountability group, I might still be happily “planning” today. Pre-drafting can go on forever if you let it, because there’s always another detail to nail down or question to answer.

Having a fixed start date meant I treated the pre-draft phase like a runway, not a permanent home. When March arrived, I was more than ready. And as a bonus, I didn't second-guess if I was starting too soon or too late. I was following the plan.

Have you spent any time in the pre-drafting phase of the writing process?

For me, spending months in pre-drafting turned out to be one of the best decisions I’ve made as a writer. It changed everything, giving me clarity, confidence, and a much stronger first draft than I expected to generate.

Have you ever spent real time in the pre-drafting phase? I’d love to hear about your experience! Leave a comment below or send me a message here and let me know your thoughts!

Peace & plenty,