Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

As much as we “have a better idea” and want to revise, sometimes the first version is the best.

The first draft. The bane of writers of fiction and non-fiction. Let’s fix it. Okay. That’s the first version. Let’s revise as we become “smarter.” Are we always becoming smarter? Sometimes not.

The first draft. That’s the poison pill of writing for many of us. Okay, fix it. Now we have the first version.

In my current job, teams of us are writing non-fiction. We have the first version. We have time before the writing is due. Hmm, I looked at this again and thought of something while driving to the office this morning. It would be better if… Repeat for ten days in a row. Now we are at version ten or twelve or something. Perhaps it is version 20. Anyways, who is counting? Every day brings better thoughts and the document is better and better.

Or is it?

It has to be. We become smarter every day.

Or do we?

Perhaps that is our ego telling us that of course we are smarter every day.

Or are we?

Perhaps. Perhaps not.

Sometimes the first version, written at a time when we are fresh and have clear insight, is the best version. Not the first draft (as I read back through this little five-paragraph piece I find errors) as it needs fixing. After the fixing, the first version is clean, fresh, and it has something innocent about it. There are no patches.

But, you know, just a little bit here and a little bit there and … we often have a patchwork quilt but the blue and the red are from different base colors (I think that is what they call it) and they just don’t go together.

Now what?

Here are two choices; no doubt there are more. (1) Go back to the first version and send it. (2) Go to a blank sheet (or screen or whatever we call it these days) and write from start to finish. Don’t look at the 20th version; don’t copy anything from that version (I hate to type again, surely copying won’t hurt, yes it will) write clean.

I have met writers who have been writing their novel for five years. Do they type slowly? No, they are on version 30 or something. I have met and read from writers who earn their living from writing novels and stories. Writing isn’t a part-time job. It is the full income, and the income is sufficient. They ship the first version and move on to the next piece in which they ship the first version and move on etc.

Sometimes the first version is the best version. That doesn’t seem right to many of us. Nevertheless, it is right. Let’s consider it.