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Meg Waite Clayton

New York Times Bestselling Author

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July 11, 2011 By Meg Waite Clayton

First Draft!

Just finished a first draft of my new novel, and am reminded of the Hemingway saying re same:
“First drafts are s#!t.”
Well, except he had a version of hello in the middle, where I’ve put the #!.
My first draft probably has a lot of #! in the middle, but there is a beauty to any first draft if you look at it as a starting point. You can see what you have and what you don’t have, what you need and don’t need. I’ve found it’s also very liberating if you approach first draft that way. Nothing needs to be perfect, or even necessarily good. Just get the story down on paper. Then I can shape it and make it better and, ultimately, good or maybe even great.
So I’ve been living without the editor on my shoulder as much as possible since I started this story last fall. I’m taking a short break to vacation with family, but am looking forward to asking the self-editor back into my office in the coming days. I’ve got the water off the end of the pier, and am ready to jump in when I get home. – Meg

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Filed Under: Meg's Posts, Writing Quotes and Other Literary Fun Tagged With: first draft, first drafts, Hemingway, novels, writing

Meg Waite Clayton

Meg Waite Clayton is a New York Times and internationally bestselling author of THE LAST TRAIN TO LONDON, a Jewish Book Award finalist based on the true story of the Kindertransport rescue of ten thousand children from Nazi-occupied Europe—and one brave woman who helped them escape. Her six prior novels include the Langum-Prize honored The Race for Paris and The Wednesday Sisters, one of Entertainment Weekly's 25 Essential Best Friend Novels of all time. A graduate of the University of Michigan and its law school, she has also written for the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, Forbes, Runners World, and public radio, often on the subject of the particular challenges women face. megwaiteclayton.com

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