A stranger at a coffee shop in Portland told me my first draft was 'too clean' and it wrecked me for a week

2 comments

2 Comments

Take that stranger's advice like a pebble and throw it in the river, @robert_anderson69 is right, clean drafts are a gift.

robert_anderson692d ago

Portland is basically the capital of telling writers their work isn't "authentic" enough. I live in Seattle and we get the same energy up here. A stranger at a coffee shop who probably hasn't finished a draft since 2017 told you your writing was "too clean" and you let that wreck you for a week. That's crazy. Clean writing is HARD to do. It means you actually edited your work instead of dumping word vomit on the page. If you were building a house would you want it "a little messy" so it felt more real? No way. You'd want clean lines and solid foundations. Your first draft being clean is a SKILL not a flaw. That stranger was just projecting their own insecurity about not being able to write something polished.