Susan Choi on Powering Through a First Draft ‹ Literary Hub

I wrote my first two books that way, in circles, just going in a circle and then going forward and then going in another circle and then backing up and going in a circle. And it was very, very confusing and frustrating.

I hate to say this, but ... sometimes the first draft is best. I don't mean the first draft of a whole thing, but sometimes the first version of a moment or a scene, or even a line of dialog, is the best one. And sometimes the twentieth or fiftieth is the best one. It's really weird and hard to account for. There are things in Trust Exercise that I feel that I never got right, and there are things in the book that I tried multiple versions of, and finally felt like I got them right. And there are things in the book that are very much as they were when I first put them down on paper.