October 20th, 2008 
fanaticalpupil Charles Stross has finished the first draft of a book. This is not all that notable seeing as how he is a professional writer. What is good to note is that he reiterates one of the fundamental things that new writers (like myself) must bludgeon into the thick (at least in my case) skulls:
When a novel is finished in first draft, it’s not yet publishable.
I just finished reading an essay by Anne Lamont contained within the textbook: Writing Fiction (mentioned here), which expands upon that concept for several pages.
Unlike most processes which follow the Crap In -> Crap Out axiom, the writing process takes crap in, but somewhere along the way in the revision process, the crap is turned into gold. At least, that’s usually the idea.
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