"I don't fiddle or edit or change while I'm going through that first draft"
About this Quote
There is a quiet swagger in Nora Roberts saying she doesnt fiddle, edit, or change during a first draft. Its not romance-novel machismo; its a production philosophy from a writer who treats creativity less like a lightning strike and more like shift work. The line reads like a rebuttal to the workshop-era fetish for polishing sentences midstream, where revision becomes a way to feel productive while avoiding the riskier act: committing to a story.
The intent is practical but also psychological. First drafts are fragile. If you interrogate every paragraph as you write it, you train yourself to distrust your own momentum. Roberts is protecting flow, the state where characters talk back and plot reveals itself. The subtext: perfectionism is often just procrastination in a prettier outfit. By refusing to edit, she blocks the inner critic from hijacking the process before the book even exists.
Context matters because Roberts is famously prolific, and that output isnt accidental. Her career was built in a market that rewards reliability: readers return for voice, pace, emotional payoff. A clean separation between drafting and editing turns a novel into a manageable pipeline rather than a single, intimidating monolith. You can be reckless in draft one and disciplined in draft two. Thats not lowering standards; its staging them.
The quote also signals confidence in revision as its own craft. She isnt anti-editing. She is anti-editing-too-soon, when what you really need is to get to The End so you have something real to shape.
The intent is practical but also psychological. First drafts are fragile. If you interrogate every paragraph as you write it, you train yourself to distrust your own momentum. Roberts is protecting flow, the state where characters talk back and plot reveals itself. The subtext: perfectionism is often just procrastination in a prettier outfit. By refusing to edit, she blocks the inner critic from hijacking the process before the book even exists.
Context matters because Roberts is famously prolific, and that output isnt accidental. Her career was built in a market that rewards reliability: readers return for voice, pace, emotional payoff. A clean separation between drafting and editing turns a novel into a manageable pipeline rather than a single, intimidating monolith. You can be reckless in draft one and disciplined in draft two. Thats not lowering standards; its staging them.
The quote also signals confidence in revision as its own craft. She isnt anti-editing. She is anti-editing-too-soon, when what you really need is to get to The End so you have something real to shape.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
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