Writing the final draft is an absolute pain

No matter how fast or slow you come up with ideas. It’s your ability to finish them that defines everything.

I hate final drafts. I loathe them with all of my heart. They usually take forever to write. There is no guarantee they won’t suck as much as the first ones. Being born a perfectionist, I’m doomed to suffer from finishing any kind of work. But writing is a special pet peeve of mine.

Freewriting, brainstorming, outlining is never the problem. Messy first drafts are easy to make, but I hardly use them afterward. The pain comes when I need to connect all the ideas together and create one coherent piece of writing. My usual reaction is to run around the room in panic and to procrastinate. All together making me more anxious. I spend days and weeks fitting paragraphs together, and still hate the “Frankenstein” I’ve created.

Editing my previous draft usually freaks me out. Tangled in the chaos of what I already did, I see no better resolution than to start over. And I rewrite the whole work 5 or 6 times from scratch. Being completely discouraged and drained by the paper, I would eventually send it and relax only to find another deadline around the corner. The process repeats. This is about drafts few pages long.

But what if I want to write a book one day. I don’t think I can emotionally afford to rewrite work of 95000 words 5 times. Chances that I’ll lose my mind than finish it are just a bit higher.

Is there any other way of writing? A better process?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m ready to accept that to write something good one needs to suffer greatly. But I would hate myself for not giving it a shot and searching for something more effective. The answer is yet to be found. After all, the creative process shouldn’t consist of perpetual torture.

Maybe, it all comes down to the practice and one’s writing experience. Writing and publishing daily is the best way to find out. Facing the unpleasant process, inviting it on the date and looking it in the eyes. Every. Single. Day. Doesn’t it sound like fun? Well, that’s my plan.