Drafts Are Ugly Things

 Q: How rough or polished are your first drafts? Do you dare show us?

-from Susan

 

Writers who can plow straight through a really rough draft, ignoring the inevitable major and minor problems, word choices, dropped clues, etc. impress me with their steely willpower. Over the years, I have learned not to obsess every day about what I wrote yesterday, or the day before, or since the first page. But I still go back and read yesterday’s work if only to set myself on the same path. And when something s...