July 13, 2025

Zero Drafting

A bare bones draft of your story from the beginning to the end.

BY JUNETA KEY

Have you ever heard of Zero Draft? It is basically a way to draft your story that focuses on JUST telling yourself the story. This way of creating that first draft is giving yourself permission to write without corrections or proper grammar or punctuation.

You just write (tell it) until you get the story told. The first draft will be a revised version or it may be your final draft, just depends on your process and how well it works for you.

Use zero drafting to discover the bare basics, get an idea of what your story is about, beginnings of character and world building, the shape of scenes, or create a jumping off point for a strong outline.

Differnt Names For The Zero Draft

There are many styles, and different names for a zero draft that means similar if not the same thing.

Discovery Draft
Pre-draft
Initial draft
Blueprint
Original draft
Early draft
First Outline

The main distinguishing factor with zero draft for me is that you are giving yourself permission to tell instead of show, write crap, use bad grammar or no punctuation.

The goal is to get the whole story told so you have something to work with, and not having to imagine in “scene style” trying to figure it ALL out.

Once you have your zero draft and you start writing scene style, you have a good idea what the scene is you are writing and where it is leading because of the zero draft.

Rules Or No Rules

I don’t quite throw all the rules I use to the wayside (although you can — give yourself permission to throw them all out), however; I do tell myself the story first, rather than show. Sometimes I incorporate a traditional style scene into my zero draft, if I have a strong image in my mind.

So my zero draft may have pieces fully played out (shown) and others more like an outline (tell). The best part is I can do anything I want to do — –I gave myself permission because the ONLY GOAL is to get the story told, so I can startwith the real writing and polishing, molding and shaping.

After all, the revision is where the magic will really happen, but first I have to have something to work that magic on, right?

(BICW) Butt in chair writing!!!! Zero draft and just keep going until the end. The point is to finish. The persistent turtle crossed the finish line, while the unfocused rabbit ran a million circles and never made it to the finish line.

THE KEY

The key is — get it told. The zero draft is your clay, and revision is the place you create the final mold. Yes, I repeated that sentiment, more or less, because it is an important concept and writing process that helps you find your way through the meandering quagmire of the first story.

The interesting thing I have found is that by allowing myself to tell the story, the story structure, especially the five plot points, are always present in the zero draft.

Why? Because we humans naturally know how the story works because we have heard it, read it, watched it, and told our own all our lives.

Zero draft for me is easier than just coming up with thirty scenes per act, as is often done in the creation of outlines. I can also use the one sentence or paragraph method in the zero draft, which can be similar to outlines.

As a pantser, it has really helped me move forward in my writing, but even if you are not a pantser, you might find this method freeing, allowing you to create an expanded synopsis of your outline.

I have tried giving my EDITOR (Me) and my MUSE (me) their own identities, personifying them. At one time, I named my left brain the Editor Hook, and my right brain, the muse, Dark Muse.

I would send the crocodile (in my imagination) after Hook to chase him away, so Dark Muse could play. It works sometimes, but mostly I still have the same troubles. I also find myself floundering at about 20,000 or 25,000 words approaching that HUGE middle.

That is why I was excited when I learned about the zero draft. It is something I have been experimenting with and finding forward progress for my writing.

I hope if you try it; you find it gives you some freedom from the hamster wheel of never finishing, and moves you forward to the end.

Zero Draft Videos from YouTube

Here is my favorite video showing zero drafts, by Katytastic. I believe her approach is more like a panster sort of…

Here is another zero draft video, this one by Kim Chance, that I like, but her approach is definitely as a person who outlines, and has a lot of stress about the first draft. She helped her anxiety by learning the zero draft to finish her second contracted book.

ABOUT

Juneta Key writes speculative fiction in genres of Midlife (paranormal), Grumpy Mythic Humor, Sy-Fi Fantasy, Fantasy Adventure, and Space Opera with a little mystery and romance. She offers early access to her Midlife series here.

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