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Meg Waite Clayton

New York Times Bestselling Author

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February 19, 2011 By Meg Waite Clayton

Hemingway on First Drafts

At the risk of using a four letter word here, one of my favorite quotes on writing, compliments of Ernest Hemingway:
“The first draft of anything is shit.” — Ernest Hemingway
This was true of the first draft of my first novel, and my second, and my third. And here I am writing my fourth. Some things never change! Please don’t tell my editor, though; we don’t want to make her nervous. – Meg

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Filed Under: Meg's Posts, Writing Quotes and Other Literary Fun Tagged With: first drafts, Hemingway, writing

Meg Waite Clayton

Meg Waite Clayton is a New York Times and internationally bestselling author of THE LAST TRAIN TO LONDON, a Jewish Book Award finalist based on the true story of the Kindertransport rescue of ten thousand children from Nazi-occupied Europe—and one brave woman who helped them escape. Her six prior novels include the Langum-Prize honored The Race for Paris and The Wednesday Sisters, one of Entertainment Weekly's 25 Essential Best Friend Novels of all time. A graduate of the University of Michigan and its law school, she has also written for the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, Forbes, Runners World, and public radio, often on the subject of the particular challenges women face. megwaiteclayton.com

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  1. Tweets that mention 1st BOOKS: Stories of How Writers Get Started » Blog Archive » Hemingway on First Drafts -- Topsy.com says:
    February 19, 2011 at 4:32 pm

    […] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Destiny, Novelist Meg Clayton. Novelist Meg Clayton said: Hemingway on 1st Drafts: https://megwaiteclayton.com/1stbooks/?p=4167 […]

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