What is a Zero Draft? Definition and Tips to Write Your Own

Do you ever get to the middle of a work in progress and find the plot seems to have lost its way? Or maybe you’re more of a planner, but your outlines feel stark and uninspiring. A zero draft may be your new secret weapon.

Zero drafting is a useful trick that many successful writers use in the planning stage of their novels. Read on for everything you need to know about why zero drafts are such a popular tool, and how you can start writing your own.

The great thing about a zero draft is that it gets you writing in a way that’s comfortable and safe. No one will ever see your draft zero—unless you decide to put it on display in a museum once you’re rich and famous. This pre-draft is simply a tool for you to use as you develop your story.

How long is a zero draft?

The perfect length for a zero draft can vary from one writer to another, and they can be anywhere between about 1,000 words and 30,000 words. 10,000 words is a good average to aim for. The longer your zero draft, the less work you’ll have to do later.

In a longer zero draft, you’ll summarize every single thing that happens in the novel. Then, you just need to flesh it out and turn the clunky phrasing into narrative. In a shorter zero draft, you’ll write a broad overview that summarizes each key plot point. Then in your first draft, you’ll need to write your way from each plot point to the next. This method allows more room for discovery and play than a more detailed zero draft.

A zero draft can be as intensive or as flexible as you like. You may be able to see some parts of your novel in more detail than others, and that’s okay too. Just get down as much onto the page as you can.

Zero draft vs. first draft

We often hear about the benefit of messy first drafts and the need to just get words on paper, even if it’s rubbish. Or, we hear people saying that “no first draft is perfect.” What’s the deal?

First drafts and zero drafts aren’t quite the same thing. A first draft, sometimes called a rough draft, is your first real attempt at writing the novel in your head. It has dialogue, description, and a healthy amount of “show, don’t tell”. It will still need some revision and refinement as you go, but it’s recognizable as a novel.

A zero draft doesn’t really look like a novel yet. It’s missing important parts like dialogue and scene setting. Instead, it’s a summary of the events that you’re planning to write about. Unlike a first draft, a zero draft is all “telling”: this happens and then this happens and then this happens. It will make things a lot easier in future writing sessions, because you already know where you’re going.

Do you need both a zero draft and an outline?

So if a zero draft is a pre-writing road map, you may be wondering if you need both a zero draft and a plot outline. The answer is it entirely depends on the writer—some feel better having both, while for others, a zero draft is enough.

An outline is very sparse and includes only the major plot points: inciting incident, first key event, midpoint, catastrophe, climax. It may also include descriptions of characters and character journeys. If you’re a “planner”, you might prefer to start with this step and then expand it into a more detailed zero draft. If you’re a “pantser” or discovery writer, you might start by writing a zero draft and learning about your story as you go.

While an outline will help you figure out all the moving pieces in your novel, a zero draft will give you a sense of what those pieces look like as a coherent story.

Benefits of a zero draft

Let’s look at a few great reasons to incorporate zero drafting into your writing process.

1. They’re stress free

Writing a zero draft is like writing a story without the pressure. You don’t have to worry about what anyone’s going to think or how it’s going to compare to the work you see on the shelves. Zero drafting is an opportunity to remind yourself how much fun building an entire world can be.

2. They allow you to test drive a story

Not every story is complex enough to fill an entire novel. Even a great idea needs more than just a single premise, and you might discover that your idea works better as a short story or novelette.

The zero draft stage helps you get a sense of how much story is waiting under the surface. If you’re struggling to fill out your draft zero with details, it might be that what you’re really working with is a short story.

3. They give you a bird’s eye view

One of the greatest advantages of a draft zero is that they let you examine the scope of your story as a whole. You’ll be able to see if your ending is a satisfying culmination of the questions raised at the start, and if your characters’ dynamic journeys are effective and compelling. You can also look at the way you’ve structured your first, second, and third acts and make sure they’re not too loose or too crowded.

A good story should feel balanced, and a zero draft will show you the big picture.

4. They organize images into words

Often when we start ruminating on a new idea for a novel, it comes to us in a series of images. Characters, places, a few key moments. It can be difficult to find the right words to bring them to life on the page. Zero drafting lets you sketch out these images and give them some distinction before beginning your first draft.

5. They help iron out plot holes

One of the biggest challenges of novel writing is keeping every detail straight from beginning to end. It’s harder than it looks, and if you’re not careful, you could end up with plot holes—moments that don’t make sense or questions that are left unanswered because they got lost in the fray.

Zero drafting is a great way to organize all your story threads so that nothing gets snagged or tangled as you move through the writing process.

6. They help you maintain momentum

It can be challenging to slam out 80,000 words without losing interest in your idea. Inevitably, some parts will feel exciting while others feel like a slog. Writing a zero draft will help you power through the tricky bits and tell the full story without running into any creative blocks.

7. They simplify the writing process

Writing a novel is a huge endeavor. In normal circumstances it can take years of drafting and redrafting and finding your way to put together an entire book. But if you work from a zero draft, you can cut that time down to as little as six months!! That’s because you already have the story written out in front of you. All you have to do is fill it out.

How to write a zero draft

Ready to write your own zero draft? Here’s how to get started.

Make a list of everything you know

The first step is to make a list of what you know about your story so far. It doesn’t have to be in order. Use bullet points or mind maps to list any characters, character backgrounds, plot points, scenes, settings, important themes, or images that you have in your head.

At this point, you don’t need to worry about how these images are connected—that part comes later. You’re just shoveling sand into a pit so you can build sandcastles.

Your preliminary list might look something like this:

• Main character: reformed con man, younger brother. Parents dead/estranged?

• Inciting incident: someone reappears from his past. A client, or someone he stole from.

• What does the figure from the past want?

• The two siblings get separated at some point. Maybe the younger brother follows the shady dude, or gets kidnapped.

• The ex-con has to save his brother by using some of his ex-con skills.

• Gotham City meets Soho.

• Key themes: nature vs. nurture, fate vs. free will. The toxic influence of one’s culture and place.

• Introduce complications. Probably a beautiful woman.

• The younger brother betrays the older one.

• The protagonist is trying to honestly put his brother through college.

• Gunfight in an amusement park.

• A leather jacket passed from father to older brother to younger brother. Something important was left in the pockets idk what.

• The villain is someone unexpected—the shady figure is only a front.

And so forth. This is the fun part. As you write, you’ll find more images coming to mind and more discoveries emerging. Soon, these images will come together to form a coherent whole.

Put your list items in order

Once you have a messy pile of thoughts and ideas ready to go, all you need to do is assemble them into chronological order, like this:

• Main character: reformed con man, younger brother. Parents dead/estranged?

• Gotham City meets Soho.

• The main character is trying to honestly put his brother through college.

• A leather jacket passed from father to older brother to younger brother. Something important was left in the pockets idk what.

• Inciting incident: someone reappears from his past. A client, or someone he stole from.

• What does the figure from the past want??

• The two siblings get separated at some point. Maybe the younger brother follows the shady dude, or gets kidnapped.

• Introduce complications. Probably a beautiful woman.

• Key themes: nature vs. nurture, fate vs. free will. The toxic influence of one’s culture and place.

• The ex-con has to save his brother by using some of his ex-con skills.

• The younger brother betrays the older one.

• The villain is someone unexpected—the shady figure is only a front.

• Gunfight in an amusement park.

Can you see a narrative starting to emerge? Your list will probably be much longer, but this gives you an idea.

Ask yourself questions

The bones of your story are there. Now, write down a list of questions that are raised by each of these plot points. We already have one: what does the specter of the past want, and why are they returning now?

What else do we need to know about this story?

• What happened to the MC’s parents?

• How does the younger brother feel about his older brother’s plans? Does he want to go to college, or does he secretly want something else?

• Why did the protagonist decide to go straight and narrow? What changed him so that he didn’t want to be a crook anymore?

• What’s in the jacket pocket??

• What causes the two brothers to diverge? An argument, external forces, etc.

• Who is the mysterious woman? Whose side is she on? What does she want?

• What does the mysterious villain want? And why do they need the protagonist? What does the protagonist have or know that’s important?

• What shady skills is the protagonist forced to utilize? How does this change him? Is he tempted to go back to his old ways?

• What does the villain offer the younger brother that makes him betray his family?

• Is the younger brother redeemed at the end or nah?

• Why an amusement park? Is it a front for something else? Is it linked to the protagonist’s past?

Etc. You don’t need to know the answers to these questions right away, but writing them down will give you a sense of what needs to be explored in the final draft. It will also help unlock more information about your novel.

Start filling in the blanks

You’ll see above that we don’t know everything about our crime thriller yet. Now it’s time to circle back and fill in some of those gaps.

This process is a lot like the snowflake plotting method —it involves going back and adding more detail to each scene again and again until you’re able to tell yourself the full story. Answer as many questions as you can, ask new questions about what you discover, and write everything down.

Put it all together

Now, take all the notes you’ve written and compile them into the final form of your zero draft. Start by superimposing what you’ve written onto a reliable story structure like the three-act story structure or the five-act story structure. Does your story have an inciting incident, rising action, a midpoint, and a climax? Are the key events spaced an even distance apart, so that the novel doesn’t feel too laggy or too rushed? This is where a preliminary plot outline will be helpful, if you had one at the start. Elsewise, you can simply match up your notes with one of these structures.

Then, start writing the summary of your novel from beginning to end. Some scenes will be written in more depth than others; you might add in scene descriptions or bits of dialogue you hear in your mind as you go.

Depending on how detailed your zero draft is, you may need to do this over several writing sessions. But! It gets you putting words on the page, and that’s the important thing. You can try setting a timer for a half hour or hour to give yourself something to work towards (this is called the “pomodoro technique”), and then take a break.

Once you have the whole thing down on paper, you’re ready for the next stage of the journey: writing the novel itself.

Zero drafting makes writing the final book a breeze

Zero drafts are a fantastic tool for reminding us what we love about writing—telling a good story! They take a lot of the stress and struggle out of novel writing, and allow you to hit the ground running when you start your next draft. Now, this trade secret can be your new secret weapon.