Mantra Monday
This is a draft.
Perhaps because I teach in an undergraduate writing program, I notice a sense in my students that they need to get it in one. At least that's what it sounds like in the non-writing classes I teach. Looking back, it's also the sense I had when I first started writing.
The idea that it ought to come out right the first time puts incredible (in both senses of the word) pressure on both the writer and the story. If I think of the process of getting the story out on paper as simply a draft, knowing that revision will come and that most of the work will happen in revision, then that pressure is minimized.
Of course, there is then pressure to get it right in revision, but who says you have to do it all in one round of revision? A story takes as many rounds of revision as it takes. Trust the story ( Mantra Monday, April 16) to tell you how many rounds that is.
The freedom that comes from allowing it all to be a draft no doubt changes when a book is under contract and a deadline looms. But I'm not in that situation yet. So for now, I try to keep the pressure off, and remember what laurasalasshared last week--"All I can do is the best I can do." But with every round of revision (and with every MFA packet, I think), the best I can do gets better.
Now, it's time to get to that new story that's been calling.