A solid piece of writing advice that has stuck with me came from a writing workshop by Toronto instructor Brian Henry. The gist of it was that it’s probably not a good idea to read over a finished piece of your writing when you’re in the middle of writing a first draft. Finished work is polished and finely-tuned; a first draft raw and awkward. Reading the finished stuff makes you think – wow, how did I do this? It must be a fluke because what I’m writing now is garbage (and that’s a polite way of putting it).
When I’m writing the first draft, I have to keep reminding myself that it’s all about generating ideas and sorting out what’s going to happen. It’s so much easier to obsess over a “just right word” [polishing!] than to create a story that will get the reader to feel something. Luckily, the other MiG Writers never let me get away with that. They always push me to think deeper. A good reason to belong to a critique group. 
– Andrea
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You make such a good point, Andrea, one that many novice writers don’t even think about. I have yet to finish one polished WIP, but reading it over while working on a new first draft seems silly. But I don’t know if I would have thought of it with out it being pointed out, something I’m so very relieved you did.
I’ll be blogging my own thoughts of this, with a link to this one. Thanks again for mentioning the obvious!
The worst part for me is when I need an insert chapter or section when I’m revising. Grafting new material onto material I’ve revised is so painful. That’s when I feel like my first effort has to be polished. I have to keep reminding myself how impossible that is.
Brittany, I sometimes do find myself working on a more polished piece of writing to revise (perhaps after my critique group has given me their comments) while I’m drafting another story. It can put a damper on the creativity for the draft, I find.
Good point, Kate. Adding new parts to an existing novel IS terribly difficult. Also hard is deciding where to add and where not to, since, when you’ve reached a certain level of writing skill, the polished writing can be well-written without doing anything for the story.
I’m with you on this Andrea! Those first drafts really are dreadful. And for me the second ones aren’t always so lovely either.
Kate- I’m dealing with the insert chapter business too. And I also did some cutting and pasting, moving and shaking kind of stuff. I’m reading another draft right now and having to fix all those little typos and nit picky things that are all messed up from those!
I like to think of first drafts as the ‘do’ draft – do whatever it takes to get to the end, with as little self-comment and criticism as possible. Nothing stops a first draft faster than ourselves! Then let the second draft be the ‘think’ draft – that’s where I think about what’s on the page, why it’s on the page, and what brings it all together…
I feel like this, too! My first drafts are always soooo rough. I find revising so much easier and enjoyable.