The farther I get along in a draft of the book, I see, the smoother it all becomes. Fewer false starts, smoother flow, even fewer typos.
At first when I’m writing a tale, I’m hunting: for voice, theme, character, even the real story. No matter how firmly I feel I have it in my mind, I don’t really know my story or my characters until I’ve written a lot about them.
This reinforces on an intuitive level what I’ve long since established to my intellectual satisfaction: I only know the terrain once I’ve walked over it. Once again (and a thousand times!), any effort trying to get it right the first time is wasted. So what I need to do is practice writing first drafts without the least concern as to how good I imagine it is.
As always, your mileage may vary – remember The Second Iron Law of Writing. As much as anything, my purpose in writing this post is to reinforce my own learning of how I need to write. If it helps you, too, so much the better.
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