First Drafts

“The first draft of anything is shit.”


― Ernest Hemingway

A good piece of wisdom from the man, whether we like his writing or not. Even after we've gone through and given a novel it's first massage, it's still not going to be very good. It'll take multiple passes, removing things each time, to reach the bare essence of what you are writing. I also believe his comment on Faulkner too:

“Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words? He thinks I don’t know the ten-dollar words. I know them all right. But there are older and simpler and better words, and those are the ones I use.”


― Ernest Hemingway

One also doesn't need to use the ten dollar word to get our point across. Use what's simplest, and most effective to get your point across.