Draft, Edit, Submit #03: A Deluge of Drafts

For me, there’s a clear difference between when I work on drafting and editing. During drafting phase, especially for poetry, I don’t need strong ideas; I need strong emotions. My first drafts are often word vomit that I could coherently understand what I intend of showing. The editing phase is meant to make it stronger (or completely rewrite it), turning into an enjoyable piece.

It’s extremely rare for me to draft and edit a piece on the same day. I tend to undergo phases of either. Last year, I wrote so many drafts (I have over 200 loose drafts roaming on my hard drive, some are utterly scrap). Their purpose of writing was to get it out of my system, and even if they’re never published, they were necessary to write.

This month, I revisited plenty of those drafts, and well, some of them were nightmares (well underwritten). Others contained strong emotions that I was able to feel when reading months later, so I’ve been trying to polish them. There’s an oddity to it because my style and skills have changed, so merging older ideas with my current frame of mind.is not easy.

Having said that, it’s a pleasure reconnecting with some of my older work. As a writer, I am interested in hearing how others writers approach their works.

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