Reading the excerpt “Shitty First Drafts” from Anne Lamott Bird by Bird made me realize the importance of Drafts.
1. Start Writing
Getting everything on the page, bad or good or both. Just get it out. Sometimes it is coherent. Sometimes it is not. Who cares. Nobody is going to see this.
2. Edit What Your Wrote
Once you have written, you can now edit. You can edit a page you have written but you can’t edit a blank page. There needs to be something to work with.
3. Stick Around To Make Those Edits
You need to stop worrying about writing something shitty. It will be shitty. Just write it. Stop worrying about it. You need to live long enough to go back and edit it that piece of shit.
4. Edit Until It Is Ready
You start editing and after the 3rd or 4th draft it should be ready. Depending on what you are writing it could be as far as the 10th or 20th draft.
5. Rinse and Repeat
At this point you are ready to start writing your next shitty draft.
Happy editing!