The first draft

I've started my story and the hardest thing to do is to remember that what I'm writing is only a rough draft. I want to fall into that trap of trying to make the first draft the final product. It is because of this that I have never finished a story.
It's easy to want to go back and read what you've written after a page or two and try smooth out the wrinkles, but, in my opinion, that's the worst thing you can do. I say that it's the worst thing you can do because that action, that seemingly small action, of going back makes you lose your focus from the most important point. That point being getting a whole story written.
When you go back you may get discouraged or bothered, at least I do, by the fact that your story isn't what you want it to be, doesn't sound the way you imagined, or isn't even comparable to the hundreds of books you've read. That's why I think that temptation to go back and edit before you've written a full story, or any writing piece for that matter, should be avoided like the plague. All you have to do is remember that: "It's just a ROUGH DRAFT!!!" Your first draft isn't supposed to be a best seller.
The most important thing you should do, as I mentioned above, is just write a full story. Even if have to force yourself to plow on, you should. If you never finish your story because it doesn't feel right on the first draft, then we all lose out. You lose out because you don't have the satisfaction of completing and sharing your story, and we lose out on a good story.
Another useful tip that I find very helpful is to keep a foulder, a nice big fancy one with several compartments, to put your seperate stories in. If you lose steam when writing a story and stop writing it's nice to keep it in a safe place so that you can return to it later. And it's okay to stop writing for awhile, just as long as you keep your piece in a safe place to return to later. Another thing to remember is that just because you stop writing it doesn't mean you're abandoning your story. So, go forth and finish that story!