"In those early pages and chapters anyone may find bold leaps to nowhere, read the brave beginnings of dropped themes, hear a tone since abandoned, discover blind alleys track red herrings and laboriously learn a setting now false."
-Annie Dillard.
It takes a lot out of any writer to be forced to part with their words. It takes courage and faith to let go entirely. It's necessary however to move forward. The real writing process begins with a draft. The first copy you show to another human being, the first soul crushing edits you receive, that is where progress is made and where great stories are born.
That's not to say threads can't be saved to bind together new ideas. Perhaps a few sentences from a page are what's left after the edits, whole paragraphs even. It won't be easy but it will be helpful. Once you've reached that ninth edition of prose it should look nothing like the first draft you wrote in the wee hours of the morning.
It can be hard, but its best, once finished, to get up and leave your work. Let it steep and give yourself a break. Go back to it, read it out loud, read it in funny voices, read it to your stuffed animals. Then sit down again and be honest with yourself. Was that description necessary? Could I have written a stronger opening? Is that character too flimsy? DON'T LIE, you're only ruining your work.
Just like people change, stories change. From day one to day 67, your characters may undergo some major personality altercations, your themes may not wish to be straightforward and weak, and you yourself may not wish to ever see the same words on a page for fear of going insane.
So in short, no one will ever write perfect first words. Thinking so will only weaken you as a writer and as a person. So delete, scratch out, or throw away what you thought was gold and rebuild with courage that you did not just throw away the best story ever written, but you will soon be much closer to it.
http://theamericanscholar.org/endless-rewriting/#.Ut2UsWasEy4
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The Writing Life by Annie Dillard
You would be the one to choose, "Writing can hurt - don't be a little bitch about it" as a topic, wouldn't you?
ReplyDeleteI like it though. Definitely something a lot of people (myself included) need to hear more often.
Being wise enough to see what is wrong with your work makes you a better writer.
ReplyDelete