Then comes the next draft. And the next, and the next. If writing can be compared to a tree, then revision is its process of leafing out. The first draft might be the wintry tree, branches like lace in the sky, but leafless. Revision fills out the tree, gives the writer depth and breadth she needs.
Revision never stops.
Even after something is published, the revising goes on, even if only in the writer's head as she reads the printed words. Every piece of information, every literary device, every line, and every word must support, develop, and communicate the meaning. Each comma, verb, statistic, reference, descriptive detail, transition, summary sentence should relate in a direct way to the central tension of what is being written. The material you have collected through research and the thinking you have done through writing that must be cut from the draft, however, is not wasted. It is all money in the bank.