gives densely packed advice in his essay How To Edit Your Own Lousy Writing. He explains the “job” that a first, second, and third draft each do, editing a hypothetical scene as a concrete ...

Drafting gives you the opportunity to select more precise vocabulary and shape your writing more effectively. The first draft of a story or article will often be a little ‘rough’ in shape.

Because that’s the job of a first draft. To be bad. And your job is to write it. Once you write the terrible first draft, you can write a better second one, and an elegant third one, and so one.

Not even in your first draft. Fake sentiment This is another one that you want to watch out for, the whole time you’re writing your first draft. If your characters don’t feel something ...

To overcome this, write your first draft for no one but yourself. In the New Writer's Handbook, Erica Jong explains: All writing problems are psychological problems. Blocks usually stem from the ...