Things I learned this past week about writing.

[SheilaT]

13. In my opinion you also cannot

show your writing to others until it has been revised somewhat. The first draft (dreck draft, I like that) is for your eyes only. Unless you have a spouse or a partner who truly understands what you're trying to do at that early stage.

I'm one of those who can get very side-tracked by punctuation issues, or other relatively trivial things, another reason why you don't want to show early versions of anything.

For me, I've benefitted most when I have something in what I honestly think is final, publishable form, and then get feedback. Invariably it needs a lot more work than I thought it did.