You need them now. Go over the remains of your first draft. You probably can't help wincing as you go along and start editing your work, joining fragments, making the verbs and the subjects agree with each other, correcting your spelling and finding that sentence or paragraph to lead your article or story. Firm up your second draft. You will find that it's a lot leaner and better than your terrible first draft.
Writing is the act of motion.
Like what Lamott wrote, go over your third draft as if you're a dentist looking for cavities, flossing every tooth and treating bad breath. Your third draft hopefully is your final and best draft. The above article first appeared in Suite101, and is not to be reprinted, reposted or circulated without the prior permission of the author. If you're interested to publish the above article on your Web site or ezine, email the author. If you enjoyed this article, help us bring more quality content to readers like you by making a small but important contribution to this site through the WebSeed Honor System .