A few years ago, I heard author Tim Grahl give a talk about his experience with writing his fantastic book on making a living as a creative,  Running Down A Dream .

He shared that before publishing the book, he’d been working on some version of of it for nearly ten years.

Many of the drafts during that time involved scrapping nearly everything he had previously written and starting from scratch.

In some versions, the content wasn’t right.

In some versions, the tone wasn’t right.

In some versions, everything seemed like it should have been right… but it still felt wrong in some intangible way.

Over the course of those ten years, Tim shared each of the many iterations of his book with a tight-knit group of guides, peers, and accountability partners who understood his goals, style, and potential, and asked for their unvarnished feedback.

That feedback was often painful. Good feedback usually is.

But draft by draft by draft, Tim was able to take that feedback and improve each version of the book until it was good enough to finally ship.

Not perfect, perhaps, but good enough to put out into the world with pride.

Tim’s story sounds extreme.

But for many creative fields, a years-long process of painful revisions is entirely normal.

We know every movie has multiple cuts, test screenings, revisions, and even reshoots before the final, public release.

We know the initial manuscript of a book is only the very first in a long series of milestones on the road to getting it published.

And yet we rarely apply the idea of working in drafts to our own creative practices.

Which is a shame.

Because the emotional and creative dynamics of working on a draft are dramatically different from working on something we know will be the definitive, finished product.

Drafts Dial Down the Pressure

Whether it’s a big project like a product launch or website, or a smaller piece of content like a newsletter issue, podcast episode, or YouTube video, we tend to approach everything we publish as though we only have one chance to get it right.

There are a couple of problems with this approach, however, that undermine our long-term progress.

The first and most obvious problem is classic perfectionism.

We’re less likely to ever ship our work when we only have one shot to get it right. Because how could we possibly create the best version of any project now when we know that by next month (let alone next year) we’ll be more knowledgeable, talented, and capable?

The second problem is that if we do manage to ship it, we tend to put too much emotional stock in the feedback we receive.

A positive reception can lead us to believe our work is done. No further improvements required.

A single piece of negative feedback on the other hand might convince us that the entire idea is stupid and not worth investing in further.

Both responses sell our work short.

Unlike finished versions, the goal of a draft is simple: Create something that is merely good enough to get the next round of feedback on.

Good enough to put into the world and assess how the world interacts with it before heading back to the drawing board to work on the next draft.

When we approach our work in drafts we tap into a bit of creative magic.

It allows us some detachment from criticism as we know we’ll have an opportunity to make improvements in the future.

This allows us to ship our work more boldly, understanding that of course there are flaws! Of course it’s not perfect! It’s only a draft after all, not the finished product.

In fact, the finished product might never arrive.

But thinking in drafts allows us to adopt a mindset of experimentation, iteration, and bravery as we put out version after version after version of our work out into the world for it to collide with, shape, and be shaped by in return.

Even if we never achieve perfection, however, the continual pursuit of it has a way of opening doors and leading to unexpected creative success.

Results Come From Iteration, Not Perfection

I recently attended a workshop where Tiago Forte, the creator behind the wildly successful course (and now book)  Building A Second Brain  talked about his process for building the course into a multi-million dollar business.

He started by sharing this graph which details the cohort launches from June 2014 to July 2022.

Then he gave this context.

“Notice the left, half of this graph, there are cohort launches in there but you can barely tell, right?

I basically consider cohorts one through nine as betas.

In retrospect, they were tests. They were so small and insignificant compared to what would happen later that all that really mattered for those first nine cohorts was that we learned, and that the revenue was just enough to make it to the next cohort.”

That’s thinking in drafts.

Like Tiago, I’ve applied thinking in drafts to big projects like Podcast Marketing Academy where  each launch and cohort builds a little bit on the last .

But I’ve also applied it to smaller—even micro—projects.

Take this newsletter, for example.

With three years of writing to pull from, I’ve started revisiting my favourite ideas, updating them, and republishing them in the newsletter a second time.

Often, the second draft of an idea is almost unrecognizable from the first.

Take this issue, which I originally published in October 2020. I was happy enough with the issue at the time, but I didn’t feel like I’d fully got my head around the idea.

In revisiting it, I’ve been able to update it with new ideas and examples I’ve picked up as my thinking has evolved.

Being a topic that I’ve already thought about on a near-daily basis for more than two years already, I have no doubt that this draft will be further revised and updated in the future.

Nothing Is Set In Stone

While thinking in drafts is valuable as part of your creative practice, its most liberating use case may be in choosing to view your life and career through the lens of drafts.

Sure you might not be where you’d like to be right now. But no matter where that is, it’s only one in a series of continually improving drafts.

Your goal today, this month, or this year is not to achieve or become the perfect final version of yourself.

Your goal today (and every day) is simply to put yourself out into the world and collect feedback, so that tomorrow’s version can be a tiny bit better.

We can approach our work and our lives with a whole lot less seriousness when the next thing we do isn’t the be-all end-all, definitive version of what we’re trying to create or who we’re trying to be.

If you’re not getting the results you’d like with the work you create, that’s not a referendum on you or the idea behind your work.

Instead, it’s simply a sign that there’s more work to be done. That you need to write a few more drafts to get your work and yourself to where they need to be.

Identify your group of guides, peers, and accountability partners who understand what you’re trying to achieve. Ask them regularly to give you their unvarnished feedback.

Then get back to work and make the next draft.

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This article originally appeared in my weekly Creative Wayfinding Newsletter. Each issue is the product of a week of work, and contains something not available for sale.

A fresh perspective, a shot of encouragement when you need it most, and maybe even some genuine wisdom from time to time.

Each week, we explore a different facet of the question “How do we navigate the wilds of creating work that matters?”

It’s something I’m proud to create and I’d be honoured to share it with you.

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