By Erica Verrillo  on Publishing … and Other Forms of Insanity:

Writer’s Block/Drew Coffman/CC license

You’ve written the last line of your book, and you have that expansive euphoria that comes with a job well done. An almost uncontrollable urge to share your accomplishment with the world washes over you. You want to show your new book to your friends, agents, publishers – or, God forbid, immediately self-publish.

Don’t do it.

The first draft of anything you write needs to be your little secret. Hug it to your breast, murmur sweet nothings to its pages, but don’t let anybody read it.

Why? Because it is filled with mistakes. There are errors in grammar, punctuation, spelling, word choice, internal logic, voice, awkward constructions, typos. There are whole scenes you have left out, dramatic high points you have missed. There is a relationship between your characters that you have not fully…