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An Imperfect First Draft, an Angelic Second and Final
15 years ago
General
You might be writing something right now. Or you might have a story unfinished, sitting on your hard drive.
As long as the story is unwritten and unedited, you are not alone in your writing of it. Even when you set down your proverbial pen, your partner is still with you, there as you go about your day, but most assuredly there when you lay down to sleep.
Who is this co-writer? Your demon.
More accurately, your imp. He perches on your shoulder and whispers into your ear, "This idea? Cliche. This character? Weak. This plot? Full of holes. How can you write that sentence, it's full of trite nothingness! You offer the reader nothing. Further, they will roll their eyes and criticize you. How can you write this drivel? Put it down and abandon it because it's awful." Only doubt, pessimism and ridicule passes this imp's lips.
You can try to silence this imp by editing. By revising. But that just shows you agree with it, and the more you edit before finishing, the longer you take to finish. The longer you take, the more the little bastard talks and the longer you have to give in to him.
Even the best authors cannot exorcise this demon. And beneath its words the story waivers and you lose its enjoyment, your work suffers, and you may even give into its sway.
The only way to banish this hellish little co-pilot is to finish the damn story. Because once the story is written, then you've crested the greatest hurdle. You can decide to keep it or not, but at least you finished. The doubt, for many authors, may leave now.
And for many of those authors, a new visitor appears. This is an angel, telling you, "This story is perfect. You've worked so hard, suffered so much under your imp. Submit it. You're done. You deserve to clear your plate and be through with it. This criticism? Don't listen to it; this story is perfect."
And beneath these pleas, you may pass off your work without editing. Without reconsidering. Without proper feedback and weight. You might even disregard feedback*.
If the original idea was enough to inspire you and energize you, then you at one point thought it was good enough. Be confident in your ideas enough to see to its finish. But once written, you must also be not be overconfident in the quality of the prose to skip revision.
Either co-author can ruin your story.
*To be fair. An author is not required to listen to feedback. It is his story after all. But a reader is an unbiased source, and being too overconfident and disregarding criticism can hurt you. I'll speak later about feedback and criticisms.
As long as the story is unwritten and unedited, you are not alone in your writing of it. Even when you set down your proverbial pen, your partner is still with you, there as you go about your day, but most assuredly there when you lay down to sleep.
Who is this co-writer? Your demon.
More accurately, your imp. He perches on your shoulder and whispers into your ear, "This idea? Cliche. This character? Weak. This plot? Full of holes. How can you write that sentence, it's full of trite nothingness! You offer the reader nothing. Further, they will roll their eyes and criticize you. How can you write this drivel? Put it down and abandon it because it's awful." Only doubt, pessimism and ridicule passes this imp's lips.
You can try to silence this imp by editing. By revising. But that just shows you agree with it, and the more you edit before finishing, the longer you take to finish. The longer you take, the more the little bastard talks and the longer you have to give in to him.
Even the best authors cannot exorcise this demon. And beneath its words the story waivers and you lose its enjoyment, your work suffers, and you may even give into its sway.
The only way to banish this hellish little co-pilot is to finish the damn story. Because once the story is written, then you've crested the greatest hurdle. You can decide to keep it or not, but at least you finished. The doubt, for many authors, may leave now.
And for many of those authors, a new visitor appears. This is an angel, telling you, "This story is perfect. You've worked so hard, suffered so much under your imp. Submit it. You're done. You deserve to clear your plate and be through with it. This criticism? Don't listen to it; this story is perfect."
And beneath these pleas, you may pass off your work without editing. Without reconsidering. Without proper feedback and weight. You might even disregard feedback*.
If the original idea was enough to inspire you and energize you, then you at one point thought it was good enough. Be confident in your ideas enough to see to its finish. But once written, you must also be not be overconfident in the quality of the prose to skip revision.
Either co-author can ruin your story.
*To be fair. An author is not required to listen to feedback. It is his story after all. But a reader is an unbiased source, and being too overconfident and disregarding criticism can hurt you. I'll speak later about feedback and criticisms.
pj wolf
~pyrostinger
Wise words, man, wise words.
hawkwolf
~hawkwolf
You missed Nanowrimo by a month or so with that advice. :)
