My first drafts are...I don't know if this makes sense, but excessively emotional? Sort of...not overly prosy, as such, just...it's hard to explain. It's kind of where everything my characters feel according to their circumstances and settings just pour out onto the paper, 200%, right up until the very last word of the draft's completed.
After that, I'll shove the draft in a drawer/obscure folder in My Documents/etc for at least two weeks and just forget about it, let it sit -- then come back and start paring down scenes, fiddling with dialogue, adding this, taking out that...basically making it sound less like brainvomit and more like a bona-fide story. :) I think I wait because while I'm writing and especially when I've just completed a story, it's my darling and I love it and that impairs my ability to judge it critically -- I'm too emotionally attached after being right in the thick of it. Not the best trait for a writer to have, that...
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After that, I'll shove the draft in a drawer/obscure folder in My Documents/etc for at least two weeks and just forget about it, let it sit -- then come back and start paring down scenes, fiddling with dialogue, adding this, taking out that...basically making it sound less like brainvomit and more like a bona-fide story. :) I think I wait because while I'm writing and especially when I've just completed a story, it's my darling and I love it and that impairs my ability to judge it critically -- I'm too emotionally attached after being right in the thick of it. Not the best trait for a writer to have, that...