Had a talk with my neighbor that totally flipped how I look at drafts

My neighbor across the street is a retired editor, and last week he saw me throwing out a half-finished short story I wrote at 3am after a rough shift. He pulled it out of the trash, read it, and said 'this sloppy version has more life than anything you'll polish into submission.' I was mad at first, but he was right. I keep trying to make things perfect before showing anyone, but he says the mess is where the real stuff lives. Any of you let people see your garbage first drafts or am I the only one holding back?

2 comments

2 Comments

lily_stone761d agoMost Upvoted

Oh man, your neighbor is a legend for pulling that out of the trash. I had a similar wake up call a few years back when I showed a friend a messy first chapter I was embarrassed about and she loved it way more than the stuff I'd spent months polishing. Now I send my raw drafts to my writing group all the time, and the feedback I get on the rough stuff is always more useful. The pressure to make everything perfect before anyone sees it just kills the energy dead.

leoyoung18h ago

My buddy Dave writes these really dark short stories, and last year he was moaning in our group chat about how his latest one was total garbage. He literally had it in his recycling bin on his computer, ready to delete the whole thing. I begged him to just let me read it, figuring it couldnt be as bad as he thought. Turns out it was one of the best things he ever wrote, all raw and jagged with this amazing twist ending. He said he only kept it because I pestered him, but now that story is the one he sends to lit mags first. It really is wild how we trash our own best stuff before anyone else even gets a look.