Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

60%
+1 −0
Q&A In What Way are Most First Drafts Bad?

"That's not writing, that's typing." Indeed. I would not say that a first draft is necessarily bad. It likely requires some editing, but that might still make it hard to distinguish from the origi...

posted 7y ago by System‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T06:20:14Z (about 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/27543
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T06:20:14Z (about 5 years ago)
"That's not writing, that's typing." Indeed.

I would not say that a first draft is necessarily bad. It likely requires some editing, but that might still make it hard to distinguish from the original.

Alas, especially in our era, it is too easy to sit down and type. Unlike Mr. Kerouac, we do not even have to carry a typewriter around; we can do it with our thumbs on a handheld device, or even record our spoken stream of consciousness for later transcription. Software will correct our spelling, but not our skills.

Thus, our "first draft" may really be what software folks call an "alpha" pre-release. Then, it may be poorly planned, uncertain in its POV, or overly moralistic.

Famous line from _Heart of Darkness_: "He had something to say. He said it."

It it easy to type, without having anything to say.

For comparison: Search for images of the original scores of famous classical music works, as handwritten by their composers (Beethoven, etc.) Compare to the same scores, after publication.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2017-04-14T15:49:01Z (over 7 years ago)
Original score: 2