Actually, the only way I write anything is to write really, really crappy first drafts.4 The first draft is the child's draft , where you let it all spill out then let it spill out everywhere, knowing no one will see it and you can shape it later. You simply let that childish part of you channel all the voices and visions that pass through and onto the page. If one of the characters wants to say, "Well, so what, Mr. Poopy Pants?" ”, you let him do it. Nobody will see it. If the child wants to get into really sentimental, whiny, emotional territory, you let him. Just put it all down on paper, because there may be something awesome in those six crazy pages that you could never have gotten to through more rational, adult means. Maybe there's something in the very last line of the very last paragraph on page six that you love, that is so beautiful or so wild that you now know what you're supposed to write about, more or less, or in what way. direction. you could go there - but there was no way to get there without first skimming the first five and a half pages.5 I used to write food reviews for California magazine before it does not close. (My