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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/32018
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

 **It sounds as though you are expecting your first draft to _not_ _be_ horrid.**

I discovered in college that the beautiful poetry I wrote, and that I would proudly thumbtack to bulletin boards around campus as soon as it was done, was magical poetry. It was truly magical. I know this, because when I saw it the very next day, it had transmogrified into something hideous and vapid.

Every time. Writing magical poetry is one of _my_ superpowers.

However, this is a very common superpower.

The advantage of learning that I wrote horribly, was that it lowered my expectations. You may (or may not) have written something horrid, I don't know, but I do see a lot of horrid writing. A lot of it is on my laptop.

Plan to write 1000 more horrid words, or perhaps two chapters, and make your goal "I am going to force myself to realize that first drafts suck." You will be in good company. Then, after 100 words (or whatever length, a couple chapters, something - ) go back and rework it. Move stuff around. Change the telling to showing, Play with point of view. Elaborate on back story, or subtext, or double entendre. Look for repetitive structure or bad grammar.

I'm on my 6th revision now. Hurray! My characters are developing nicely. It turns out they had all sorts of stuff going on that I didn't know about in draft 1. Oh, and draft 1 was actually the second start to the story - the protagonist changed dramatically from my first stab to my second.

Original score: 2