Completing a first draft means getting your ideas down on paper. You’ve accomplished something special when you can say, “I have a draft of my story.”

Here’s what some established writers have to say about writing the first draft.

• The best advice on writing was given to me by my first editor, Michael Korda, of Simon and Schuster, while writing my first book. ‘Finish your first draft and then we’ll talk,’ he said. It took me a long time to realize how good the advice was. Even if you write it wrong, write and finish your first draft. Only then, when you have a flawed whole, do you know what you have to fix. ~ Dominick Dunne, author of five bestselling novels and “The Way We Lived Then,” a memoir with photographs.
• “The first draft is just you telling yourself the story.” ~ Terry Pratchett
• “Get through a draft as quickly as possible.” ~ Joshua Wolf Shenk