Usually, I wander idly through Twitter. It can be amusing or enraging. I laugh at the funny tweets and retweet the occasional brilliant ones.

Sometimes, though, one sticks with me. This one did.

“The first draft of your story
is the story you tell yourself.”

I never thought of that. But it’s true. My first drafts are usually written in Mary Code. I know exactly what I mean. It’s written the way I think and feel. I get it.

Problem is maybe no one else will get it. My logic tends to run backwards. So do my paragraphs. So edit I must. Turn those paragraphs around, clarify the thoughts, deepen the emotion. Then other people can read it and understand it. And, I hope, love it. Or as Kevin Cullen said:

“As you edit it, you begin to evolve the story for others.”

So glad I saw that tweet!

Ⓒ Mary K. Tilghman