Writing a book? Article? Angry email to your boss telling him you quit?! I don’t know what your first drafts look like, but mine are total garbage. Turns out, however, that even successful writers struggle with first drafts. So, here are some spectacular quotes to get you excited and motivated, quotes that will expunge your every expectation to write a brilliant first draft. Because it turns out—first drafts are supposed to be terrible. Whew!
“The first draft of anything is shit.”
― Ernest Hemingway
“The first draft is just you telling yourself the story.”
― Terry Pratchett
“I would go so far as to say that I mostly write terrible things. I mean, my first drafts are so appalling.
― Jennifer Egan
“I know some very great writers, writers you love who write beautifully and have made a great deal of money, and not one of them sits down routinely feeling wildly enthusiastic and confident. Not one of them writes elegant first drafts. All right, one of them does, but we do not like her very much.”
― Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
“My first drafts are always terrible, and I hate them, but the process for me is all about writing the bad version until it tells you what the good version is. And then you write that.”
― Jesse Andrews
“A novel rough draft is like bread dough; you need to beat the crap out of it for it to rise.”
― Chris Baty, No Plot? No Problem!: A Low-Stress, High-Velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days
“I’m a great reviser. I do these reckless drafts just to get the lay of the land.”
― Thomas McGuane
You should write first drafts as if they will never be shown to anyone.”
― Erica Jong, The New Writer’s Handbook 2007: A Practical Anthology of Best Advice for Your Craft and Career
“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.”
― Jennifer Egan
“Every first draft is perfect, because all a first draft has to do is exist.”
― Jane Smiley
