Ability Quote by Bernard Malamud

“First drafts are for learning what your novel or story is about. Revision is working with that knowledge to enlarge & enhance an idea,…

— Bernard Malamud

Somewhere I put it this way: first drafts are for learning what one’s fiction wants him to say. Revision works with that knowledge to…

— Bernard Malamud

Writing a first draft is like groping one's way into a dark room, or overhearing a faint conversation, or telling a joke whose punchline…

— Ted Solotaroff

But revision is a creative act, not merely an analytical imposition of rules of style on a more creative first draft. That's a myth…

— K. M. Soehnlein

The novel is never really in the first draft. The novel really happens in the revisions.

— Tama Janowitz

My first drafts are always terrible, and I hate them, but the process for me is all about writing the bad version until it…

— Jesse Andrews

When I'm my own editor, there's very little difference between the first draft and the final. I write what feels right to begin with.…

— Len Wein

I am a technophile, so there is no such thing as a first draft. The first draft plunges on, and about a quarter of…

— Terry Pratchett

I think a lot of the dull parts of first drafts come from a kind of over-managing, intrusive writer who wants to direct traffic.…

— Meg Wolitzer

“A really well-done first draft of a book bares your soul. The purpose of revision is so that everyone who reads the published version…

— James A. Owen

First drafts are for learning what your story is about.

— Bernard Malamud

Writing the first draft of a new story is incredibly difficult for me. I will happily do revisions, because once I can see the…

— Marie Lu