Steve Kimmins asked Raymond St. Elmo:

Do you ‘polish’ your drafts much? This curiosity follows from another question about your prose being exceptionally good, so the effort required interests me! Is it mostly there in your first draft, or is there agony getting there? I have no literary talent but when I wrote technical reports at work I could never resist ‘polishing’ though mostly to correct poor grammar rather than add any witty insights about Life.

Raymond St. Elmo Poor writing done badly is awful to me. I doesn't like ever doing such, and I feels the most poetical and insiteful prose is spoiled when oblivious mistakes are maid.

That said: I get the main story done in draft #1. What I clean up afterwards is spelling, grammar, punctuation*. Not much 'polishing' of narrative. I think the reason is that I am writing what I like, entirely to please myself. Not constructing a term paper to please some insanely demanding professor.

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*Copyediting a novel is like trying to smooth a sheet of tin-foil with your fingernail. You get so close; but there is always one last wrinkle.

If we had to compile the manuscript and then run it like a computer program, we wouldn't be able to get away with mistaking 'breath' for 'breathe'. A terrible shame; possibly, possibly.

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