First Drafts Quotes

Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere.

I think a lot of the dull parts of first drafts come from a kind of over-managing, intrusive writer who wants to direct traffic. The idea of taking out the parts that the reader could infer is very liberating, and it's weirdly part of radicalizing your work: it allows you to go to new places fast.

I haven't had trouble with writer's block. I think it's because my process involves writing very badly. My first drafts are filled with lurching, cliched writing, outright flailing around. Writing that doesn't have a good voice or any voice. But then there will be good moments.

I dread first drafts! I worry each day that it won't come, that nothing will happen.

The bottom line is that I like my first drafts to be blind, unconscious, messy efforts; that's what gets me the best material.

First drafts are never any good - at least, mine aren't.

I tend to write first drafts that are incredibly cognitive, very rational, very boring. They come off as justification. Like, 'This is my idea and here's all the reasons that it's right.' It doesn't make for very compelling reading.

I tend to write some, then outline some, then delete some, then go back and rewrite some. I love revising and hate first drafts. I have to wear bedroom slippers. My current favorites come from the Zetter Hotel in London. They have little tobacco pipes on the toes.

We are all continually embarking on first drafts, in every aspect of our lives.

I would go so far as to say that I mostly write terrible things. I mean, my first drafts are so appalling.

Every published writer suffers through that first draft because most of the time, that's a disappointment.

For me and most of the other writers I know, writing is not rapturous. In fact, the only way I can get anything written at all is to write really, really shitty first drafts.