The guiding principles of Draft
Most of the great works throughout history were written with the barest of tools: pen & paper. You don't need help with spelling, grammar, etc when you are writing a draft. You need a tool that will get out of your way and let you work.
This is the writing version of the phrase "don't sh*t where you eat." Editing is an essential part of the process, but it shouldn't begin until you have something already. So many writing tools supply you with editing features, suggestions, corrections, etc. These are all distractions from the writing. When we are writing, we only need our thoughts and the words that are coming out. Save the editing for later.
Rewards and punishments work great, for a little while. It turns out they are detrimental for long-term internal drive, which is exactly what we need in order to get through the work of writing a book. No outside motivator is going to get us through the hundreds of hours needed to finish that first draft, much less the thousands of hours needed to master this craft. No goals, no metrics, no carrots, no sticks. The only number we track is the number of words written. Motivate yourself.
Everyone has the skill to write a first draft. It requires more grit than flourish. It's not supposed to be perfect. It's never going to be what you want it to be. It will exist, and that is a miracle on its own. Write until it's done. Then take a break and go back to perfecting it later. You can't do anything with a story that only exists in your head. Get it out.
To complete a project, momentum matters more than anything else. And momentum is very difficult to maintain. What we've seen that works, is taking things a little bit at a time. We've designed the writing experience of Draft around this principle: one sentence, one paragraph at a time. Don't try to figure out the next bit yet. Write this sentence. The next one will come when this one is done.
This is what gives writing its power. In order to tap into this, we must bring ourselves out of the past, out of the future. We must exist only right now. And in this right now, the words will come on their own. This is what we trust every time we sit down to write. The more we do it, the more we know it to be true. Put your fingers to the keys. Don't consider what others will think about it. Don't consider what you will think about it. Don't judge or label. Just write.
Most of us will not write bestsellers. We will not sell millions of books and make millions of dollars. Even for those who do, there are stories a plenty about how "making it" doesn't bring happiness. Joy doesn't exist in achievement. It exists only in the present moment. It exists while we are doing the work, while we have our fingers to the keys pounding out words. If we were doing it for the glory, we would quit. That's not why we are doing it. We are doing it for the joy of the moments when the words flow.