first drafts

A version of this story appeared in Total Annarchy, my fortnightly newsletter that helps you be a better writer, storyteller, marketer. Get it in your inbox; you’ll love it. * * * I re-posted the image above on Instagram a few days ago. Don’t we go into any new project (or year) with a vision in our heads that often doesn’t quite mirror the mess that ultimately spills out? We might have a vision for a totally jacked stallion, lead-penciled rippling muscles capable of leaping straight at your face if they wanted to. We try our best to pull out what’s in our head and shape it into something that could run wet and sweaty off the page. And then—oof—what we end up with in first draft is something a not very talented preschooler might produce. My own first drafts are like that: littered with typos and half-written phrases, like I’m […]