This from Patricia Hampl's essay "Memory and Imagination," in which she writes specifically about memoir so the point might need a bit of adjustment for other genres. Nonetheless, I offer it at a time in the semester when many students might benefit from the encouragement she gives.
"For me, writing a first draft is a little like meeting someone for the first time. I come away with a wary acquaintanceship, but the real friendship (if any) and genuine intimacy--that's all down the road
"A careful first draft is a failed first draft. That may be why there are so many inaccuracies in the piano lesson memoir...
"The real trouble: the piece hasn't yet found its subject; it isn't yet about what it want to be about. Note: what IT wants, not what I want. The difference has to do with the relation a memoir -- any writer, in fact -- has to unconscious or half-known intentions and impulses in composition."
The advise, the encouragement? Well, it is to get something on the paper so that you can think about it and learn from it. The first draft may not even be worth cleaning up; it may require a new start; but it will have done its work of helping you to find out what there is to be said.
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