First Draft Creativity

I love the creativity of the first draft of a story.

Even when I switched from writing by the seat of my pants (pantsing) to planning out my books (planning), I still found a wealth of creativity in the first draft of a story I had already outlined chapter by chapter (see this article for more on that process).

I’ve heard a lot of writers say that they don’t outline because they don’t want to feel stifled in the first draft–that they don’t want to lose the creativity. That is completely un...