This helps, @michelle.gent. I've been struggling with first draft perfection anxiety syndrome. Unless you are able to let go of that first draft and fully give yourself permission to suck-but-move-forward, you're never going to finish anything. So layering one's story becomes crucial. I've read that Scott Adams, a best-selling non-fiction writer and cartoonist goes four about four layers per article written. The fourth layer he calls the "persuasion layer" where he goes in and replaces less persuasive words with more persuasive ones. For instance, if he has two perfectly replaceable synonyms, he goes for the one that sounds funnier to say.