The First Draft

I always think it’s better to put too much into the first and second drafts and then you can cut it back. But your first draft is partly you talking to yourself about a subject. And maybe you can’t get through that first draft without talking to yourself about that subject. You can always go back in the second draft and cut out the blibber-blabber and make it just the narrator talking about the story. One of the signals for me that I’m just talking to myself is when I use the word just. I don’t know why that is, but it’s a tic. And so, if I go into my file and I search for the word just, most every case will take me to a place where I’m sort of blithering on.

JANE SMILEY