We all have that sense of trepidation when we send a draft to a client.
We hope they like it.
Then our heart sinks a bit when it comes back criss-crossed with multi-coloured track changes detailing thousands of comments and amendments, many contradictory, from a whole committee of readers.
We do, of course, dream of the clean, beautiful first draft that’s so perfect that even the most nit-picking client will approve it without a single comment.
Yet experience has taught me a harsh reality: there is no such thing.
If the draft comes back to you without any comments and is in effect waved untouched through the approval process, it’s best not to indulge in self-congratulation.
The chances are that it hasn’t been read properly – or that it hasn’t been read at all by the people who really matter.
The temporary glow you’re enjoying now will only postpone future pain.
Somewhere down the line – and probably when you or your writer is up against another stiff deadline – this draft, with copious quibbles and amends, will return to bite you on the bum.
The moral here is to bite the bullet first. Challenge the unmarked draft. Double-check with the client, and find out right away whether the convenient fiction of the perfect draft conceals some inconvenient truths that need to be dealt with now.
For more information about ProseWorks click here
Photo by Quaid Lagan on Unsplash
