In the musical 1776, we see Thomas Jefferson writing the Declaration of Independence, surrounded by numerous crumpled up pieces of paper.
Was paper cheap enough then that this would be possible?
If I were a writer then (or at some prior time when paper was too rare and expensive), how would I have dealt with drafts and editing? Surely, I couldn't write like I do today, casually producing draft after draft and throwing away (or rather, deleting from my laptop) the ones I don't like.
Even just before the advent of computers, writing on a typewriter meant you wouldn't want to go through too many rough drafts. You would simply approach writing differently and try to compose it as best as you could in your head or sketched out on paper beforehand. Making even a small mistake would mean either using liquid paper and waiting for it to try before continuing, or having to retype an entire page. So you would think ahead more, because editing was a much more arduous process. Many works would still go through multiple drafts however.