The first draft is total trash, EDIT it.

I'll let you in on a secret.

The first draft of any written work is TRASH. Totally destined for the waste basket. Any author is as good as his/her editor or copywriter.

Writers are good at churning out ideas and stitching words together, it's the editors who polish up the rough edges. So learning to edit your own writings is an essential skill in itself. But editing your own work can be a task as laborious as drawing blood from a vampire.

Ask Nicholas Sparks. He revised the draft for his first novel, The Notebook, fifteen (15) times before he was sure it was polish enough for publication.

Stephen King's first book Carrie was plucked out of the waste basket by his wife; who was of the opinion that it was good enough of a story for Stephen to continue writing. And the rest is history.

Read more...