Why You Should Be Proud of Old, Bad Drafts

Have old, bad drafts that make you wince when you look at them? In this video, I explain why those can serve as a point of pride.

Watch/Subscribe:
https://youtu.be/IeRzcb_T_b4

The other side of this idea, of course, is going back to a draft you originally thought sucked, only to discover that it’s more salvageable than you anticipated. I’ve had drafts that I thought were completely not worth the time. I looked them over thinking I could maybe just pull a few paragraphs or whatnot. But once I got reading, I actually kind of impressed myself.

I know what you might be thinking. That’s just my ego, right?

No, no, no.

The drafts I’m talking about were so old I didn’t even remember I had them until I found them stuffed in a box. I picked the stack up and I’m like, “What the fudge are these?” So, in a way, I was going in almost blind. I did recall bits and pieces once I got reading, but the majority of it was just fuzz.

At any rate, the big takeaway is, there’s no such thing as a “bad” draft. Not really. Even if you never publish it, a manuscript is always something you can look back on and see where you’ve learned, and that has value. If you surprise yourself, like I’ve done, that’s not going to make you sad, either. 🙂

Image credit:
Gerd Altmann from Pixabay