first draft

I write terrible first drafts

There’s a common misconception about what people like me do for a living: that when our fingers make that initial contact with the keyboard, brilliance flows forth, creating first drafts that are truly works of art. The reality is quite different. If you read my typical first draft of copy for an article, a website, … Read more

SAVE YOUR BEST WORK FOR EDITING

One of the surest signs of a professional writer is that his or her first drafts are absolutely terrible and often unreadable.

Surprised? It’s true. While most non-writers assume that those of us who earn a living stringing words together try to create brilliance and beauty with every keystroke, the simple fact is that our real skill emerges in the rewrite stage.

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