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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/5810
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/5810
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

It's an excellent idea.

Your considerations are quite correct - a first draft can be absolutely terrible; most of its value is in fleshing out general details, structure and plot. It gives you a skeleton framework which you can the edit the heck out of. Therefore, there's no reason to worry if some parts are not all they could be. You _know_ what improvement they need (if they remain as-is); you _don't know_ what'll be needed for the parts you haven't written yet. So first, finish the draft.

Or look at it this way: there's no point in tightening up a dialogue and polishing it to perfection if next week you decide that your one-legged ballet dancer should actually be a tap-dancing robot. If you spend your time making the current scenes marvelous, that's effort that'll be wasted if you need to change just about _anything_ - and you most assuredly will. So, yes, having a complete first draft will give you a _much_ firmer foundation to build (and edit) around.

(Of course, every author has their own creative process; not everybody uses a first draft in this particular fashion. But my understanding is that this view of a first draft is exceedingly common and highly recommended - plus, it sounds like you're leaning in the same direction anyway :P )

Original score: 7