{"id":323,"date":"2019-08-28T01:18:16","date_gmt":"2019-08-28T01:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-eng-101-college-writing-i\/chapter\/text-the-first-draft-is-the-ugliest\/"},"modified":"2019-08-28T01:18:16","modified_gmt":"2019-08-28T01:18:16","slug":"text-the-first-draft-is-the-ugliest","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-eng-101-college-writing-i-lynch\/chapter\/text-the-first-draft-is-the-ugliest\/","title":{"raw":"The First Draft is the Ugliest","rendered":"The First Draft is the Ugliest"},"content":{"raw":"\n[caption id=\"attachment_662\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"640\"]<img class=\"wp-image-662 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/106\/2016\/06\/01152307\/7572774182_e26696f45b_z.jpg\" alt=\"Cartoon showing two cat silhouettes sitting outside at night. Above them, lightning bugs have written out &quot;haapy catturday&quot; in the sky. One cat says &quot;Fireflies r notoriously bad spellrs.&quot;\" width=\"640\" height=\"444\"> Consider this skywriting the fireflies' first draft.[\/caption]\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">If one is the loneliest number, the first draft is the ugliest draft. The end. There\u2019s no way around it. If you can accept that reality, carry on. If you can\u2019t, writing will be an ever-frustrating task. You will struggle to find joy in doing the work.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Consider the truth a sort of Jedi mind trick. It frees you from having to write something \u201c<span class=\"s2\">golden<\/span>\u201d every time you come to the page. The pressure eases. You can write terribly. You can use cliches and jargon and run-on sentences. Don\u2019t worry about any of it. You can \u2013 and should \u2013 revise and edit later.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Let the words fill the page. If no words come, use a writing exercise. Steal a line from someone (cited, of course). <span class=\"s2\">Get your writing muscles working<\/span>, and your mind will follow suit. It will start to make connections.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Stop waiting to \u201cfeel\u201d like writing and do the hard work of writing. Feelings more often follow actions rather than the other way around. Waiting to feel like writing is the same thing as <span class=\"s2\">waiting for inspiration<\/span>. Neither typically happen unless you\u2019re working.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Don\u2019t be afraid of the horrible, no-good words. At least you have words. That\u2019s an accomplishment. Many give up before even getting that far. You didn\u2019t. You have an ugly first draft.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Now get to work on the second. It\u2019ll still be ugly but much less so than the first.<\/span><\/p>\n","rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_662\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-662\" class=\"wp-image-662 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/106\/2016\/06\/01152307\/7572774182_e26696f45b_z.jpg\" alt=\"Cartoon showing two cat silhouettes sitting outside at night. Above them, lightning bugs have written out &quot;haapy catturday&quot; in the sky. One cat says &quot;Fireflies r notoriously bad spellrs.&quot;\" width=\"640\" height=\"444\" \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-662\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Consider this skywriting the fireflies&#8217; first draft.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">If one is the loneliest number, the first draft is the ugliest draft. The end. There\u2019s no way around it. If you can accept that reality, carry on. If you can\u2019t, writing will be an ever-frustrating task. You will struggle to find joy in doing the work.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Consider the truth a sort of Jedi mind trick. It frees you from having to write something \u201c<span class=\"s2\">golden<\/span>\u201d every time you come to the page. The pressure eases. You can write terribly. You can use cliches and jargon and run-on sentences. Don\u2019t worry about any of it. You can \u2013 and should \u2013 revise and edit later.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Let the words fill the page. If no words come, use a writing exercise. Steal a line from someone (cited, of course). <span class=\"s2\">Get your writing muscles working<\/span>, and your mind will follow suit. It will start to make connections.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Stop waiting to \u201cfeel\u201d like writing and do the hard work of writing. Feelings more often follow actions rather than the other way around. Waiting to feel like writing is the same thing as <span class=\"s2\">waiting for inspiration<\/span>. Neither typically happen unless you\u2019re working.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Don\u2019t be afraid of the horrible, no-good words. At least you have words. That\u2019s an accomplishment. Many give up before even getting that far. You didn\u2019t. You have an ugly first draft.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Now get to work on the second. It\u2019ll still be ugly but much less so than the first.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\t\t\t <section class=\"citations-section\" role=\"contentinfo\">\n\t\t\t <h3>Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t <div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <div id=\"citation-list-323\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <div class=\"licensing\"><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">CC licensed content, Original<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>Revision and Adaptation. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Lumen Learning. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/4.0\/\">CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike<\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">CC licensed content, Shared previously<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>The First Draft is the Ugliest. <strong>Authored by<\/strong>: Erin Feldman. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Write Right. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.writerightwords.com\/first-draft-is-the-ugliest\/\">http:\/\/www.writerightwords.com\/first-draft-is-the-ugliest\/<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/4.0\/\">CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike<\/a><\/em><\/li><li>Image of haapy catturday. <strong>Authored by<\/strong>: Adam Koford. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/flic.kr\/p\/cxbrW7\">https:\/\/flic.kr\/p\/cxbrW7<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-nd\/4.0\/\">CC BY-NC-ND: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives <\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t <\/section>","protected":false},"author":141992,"menu_order":3,"template":"","meta":{"_candela_citation":"[{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"The First Draft is the Ugliest\",\"author\":\"Erin Feldman\",\"organization\":\"Write Right\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.writerightwords.com\/first-draft-is-the-ugliest\/\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by-nc-sa\",\"license_terms\":\"\"},{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"Image of haapy catturday\",\"author\":\"Adam Koford\",\"organization\":\"\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/flic.kr\/p\/cxbrW7\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by-nc-nd\",\"license_terms\":\"\"},{\"type\":\"original\",\"description\":\"Revision and Adaptation\",\"author\":\"\",\"organization\":\"Lumen Learning\",\"url\":\"\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by-nc-sa\",\"license_terms\":\"\"}]","CANDELA_OUTCOMES_GUID":"","pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-323","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":320,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-eng-101-college-writing-i-lynch\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-eng-101-college-writing-i-lynch\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-eng-101-college-writing-i-lynch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-eng-101-college-writing-i-lynch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/141992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-eng-101-college-writing-i-lynch\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/323\/revisions"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-eng-101-college-writing-i-lynch\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/320"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-eng-101-college-writing-i-lynch\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/323\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-eng-101-college-writing-i-lynch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-eng-101-college-writing-i-lynch\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=323"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-eng-101-college-writing-i-lynch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=323"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-eng-101-college-writing-i-lynch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}