All posts by Sonja Hakala

I have been a professional writer since 1987. I've written for newspapers, magazines, worked in the book publishing industry, and published novels and non-fiction books. In addition, I've guided numerous authors through the process of independent publishing, and offer workshops in that same vein. I'm the founder of the Parkinson's Comfort Project and over the course of six years, we gathered and gave away over 500 handmade quilts to people with Parkinson's disease.
Carding Chronicles

Big, Fat, Sloppy First Drafts

I drove up to Norwich last night to see author Louise Penny speak at the Congregational church. She was there as part of the Norwich Bookstore’s ongoing author events programming.
TRU-Edited for web
She was wonderful, and I found myself nodding in agreement as she talked about the challenges of writing.

At one point, one of the bookstore owners asked her if one of her books stood out either as particularly pleasurable or challenging.

And Penny said that her second book was the most difficult. At the same time, she described her first drafts as big, fat and sloppy because if you’re wise, you don’t edit (let the critic in) while you’re in that state. You throw in everything you want to.

Honing and shaping is what rewriting and editing are for.

So I now have a big, fat, sloppy first draft of Thieves of Fire just waiting to be sculpted.

Thank goodness for Post-Its.