![\"writer-ionesco\"](\"http:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/writer-ionesco.png\")
<\/a>For me, any first draft is just opening a door.\u00a0 I feel a sense of adventure and expectation because I never know where the piece will end up.\u00a0 Sometimes it goes right into the waste paper basket if I’ve printed it off–or I just delete the file.\u00a0 So what?<\/p>\nLev Raphael is the author of Writer\u2019s Block is Bunk (Guide to The Writing Life)<\/em><\/a> and 24 other books in genres from memoir to mystery.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It’s pretty common to hear writers talk about their first drafts as “shit” or “shitty.”\u00a0 Sadly, even some of my student writers do it. They have a model in Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird.\u00a0 If she puts it that way, she must be right, and she says all good writers write them.\u00a0 Seriously?\u00a0 How does … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[298,497,5,95,219,333,773,786,348,290,214,787,495,132],"class_list":["post-2407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advice-for-writers","tag-advice-for-writers","tag-authors","tag-books","tag-creative-writing-2","tag-crime-fiction","tag-first-drafts","tag-newbie-writers","tag-professional-wirters","tag-rough-drafts","tag-the-writers-life","tag-the-writing-life","tag-writers-block-is-bunk","tag-writing","tag-writing-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2407"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5498,"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2407\/revisions\/5498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u201cShitty\u201d is an adjective I\u2019ve never used to describe my first drafts.\u00a0 It’s also a word I\u2019ve never used in any creative writing class or workshop I\u2019ve taught\u00a0 And I discourage my student writers from using it because I think it can be damaging. It can undermine how you feel about your work.<\/p>\n
You get writers used to applying a word like that to a first draft and it\u2019s too easy for them to survey their work in dark times and think, \u201cThis is total shit.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Writers have to deal with enough doubts about their abilities as it is.<\/p>\n
None of the first drafts of my hundreds of stories, essays, reviews, or blogs were \u201cshitty.\u201d\u00a0 Some were even pretty good. Surprisingly good. But I always knew they were just a starting point and that they would always need much more work.\u00a0 That’s a given, it’s part of the process.<\/p>\n