Doe Quote by Victor Levin

Maybe other writers have perfect first drafts, but I am not one of them. I always try to get the book as tight as…

— Sarah Dessen

I generally write a first draft that's pretty lean. Just get the story down.

— Nora Roberts

You have to get something down, and then find ways of working in complexity and different layers of meaning... My first drafts are usually…

— Peter Wolf

First drafts are for learning what your story is about.

— Bernard Malamud

I tend to write first drafts that are incredibly cognitive, very rational, very boring. They come off as justification. Like, 'This is my idea…

— Donald Miller

I hate first drafts, and it never gets easier. People always wonder what kind of superhero power they'd like to have. I wanted the…

— Judy Blume

It’s always hard. If it was easy, everyone would do it rather than going around telling you their ideas and saying how they could…

— Arthur M. Jolly

I've always thought that writing isn't really that hard. It's having a good idea that's hard.

— Lyle Lovett

Ideas come at any moment -- except when you demand them. Most ideas come while I'm physically active, at the gym, with friends, gardening,…

— Chuck Palahniuk

Writing a first draft is like trying to build a house in a strong wind.

— William Faulkner

What I love about drafts is the experimental nature of them. The draft is what you know about writing a poem running up against…

— Cornelius Eady

Only in very rare circumstances will you see something cut out of my first drafts. Maybe it's because of the way I write. I'm…

— R. A. Salvatore