Your First Draft Stinks

What if I told you your first draft stinks?

“What?!” you scream.  “How dare you….!”

Ok.  Maybe it doesn’t stink but who cares if it does or it doesn’t?  Its very name implies that it isn’t the final product.   It’s your first draft.  Nor is it the only draft.  If it were then it would be called “the Draft”. Being the first one means there will be second.  Perhaps even a third or *gasp* a fourth iteration before you can consider it a job well done.

I have no doubt that there is someone out there who says “Me?  More than one go at it?  I think not.  I’m a writer.  I know what I’m doing.”  Perhaps.  Then again, writing is work. Even the most creative, most talented, and even the laziest writer will admit that to create an articulate piece of work, be it fiction or a thesis on horizontal gene transfer, requires labor.

So forget about perfection.  You have a story to tell and it’s itching to get out.  So tell it.  Put your fingers to the keyboard and hop on for the ride with your arms in the air.  When the ride is over you can collect yourself and revisit the adventure you’ve just had.  That is where the labor comes in.  You can fix the spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, and plot inconsistencies, later.

Except for me.  The previous three paragraphs make up my first draft.  I’ll tighten it all up later…