What Do We Want From a First Draft?

The poster above is a fine reminder to us that we must remember that we are just beginning when we write the first draft. It's much later that the polished, finished product will appear. In-between, there will be a lot of hard work and frustration as we use that sand we first shoveled into a box to build a completed castle. 

Yes, the first draft is meant for you and no one else. It's the place where you gather all those thoughts that have been swirling in your head and try to make sense of them with the printed word. Words will be cut and more added. Paragraphs will be changed around after you finish telling yourself the story in that all-important first draft. Where would you be without it? You need show it to no one. It's all yours to do with what you will. Some writers file the first draft away to let it simmer before they work on it again. Some will pound away on it for days. Your choice.

If I ever wrote a first draft that was perfect, I'd probably pass out from sheer shock. All I want in a first draft is to get the story down, write the bones of the personal essay, hit the highlights of a short memoir piece. Or get the main idea of a poem that I can flesh out later. 

First drafts are a beginning. No less. No more. Use them later as a springboard to the finished product.