Topic: Advice on First Drafts

10-second review: Write them quickly.

Title: “How I Write: Geoffrey Clark.” Interview by Jack Smith. The Writer (February 2009), 58. The Writer is a magazine by writers for writers.

Summary: One piece of advice comes up almost every time I read about what writers do when they write: make that first draft quick and as complete as you can. Clark: “I always try to get first drafts down fast, and then if I’ve gotten the spark I was looking for, I’ll see it through however many drafts it needs to be fully realized.”

Comment: My experience has been that if I don’t finish a draft at one sitting for short pieces and as quickly as possible for longer pieces, I will procrastinate and it will probably never be completed or published. RayS.