I'm in the newborn stage of my novel. Birthing is over- I have my characters and part of the plot - I'll learn as I go - about the characters, their motives, and their story. Right now it feels good, like holding a newborn with all the expectations of what he or she will be someday.
Today I wrote a new scene and am feeling good about my work. This isn't always so. I'm a huge critic and a ruthless editor. That's why I've done well with short pieces. I love cutting and surgically removing all the excess fat. Sometimes I have little left.
But my "baby novel" is so soft and sweet and lovable right now. I want this feeling to last forever. And it will, until tomorrow when I'll allow myself to read what I've written. Then the disappointment will set in. How could I have been so fooled by my own words. How could something be so perfect one day and so misbehave the next.
It's all in the writing - finding the real story that's hiding among the many useless words.
Off here to print the pages I've written today. Keep writing. And, blessings!
Today I wrote a new scene and am feeling good about my work. This isn't always so. I'm a huge critic and a ruthless editor. That's why I've done well with short pieces. I love cutting and surgically removing all the excess fat. Sometimes I have little left.
But my "baby novel" is so soft and sweet and lovable right now. I want this feeling to last forever. And it will, until tomorrow when I'll allow myself to read what I've written. Then the disappointment will set in. How could I have been so fooled by my own words. How could something be so perfect one day and so misbehave the next.
It's all in the writing - finding the real story that's hiding among the many useless words.
Off here to print the pages I've written today. Keep writing. And, blessings!
Thank you so much for stopping by my blog today! Sounds like you have a ruthless internal editor! It might be worth it to try to keep that editor locked up for a while and let the story flow! I have a pretty strict internal editor too, and I have to work hard to keep it from interfering with the creative aspect of just writing! Blessings!
ReplyDeleteWow - you hit it on the head. I'm in a constant tug of war between the editor and the writer sides. Today - I just wrote and somehow the editor stayed at bay. IF only I had a cage to lock the "editor" in. Thanks for the encouragement. Barb
ReplyDeleteEvery November, I teach NaNoWriMo in my classroom. This is a project where you write a novel in a month -- the standard goal is 50,000 words, but kids can set their own goals (or let their teacher help them choose a good one).
ReplyDeleteOn October 31, we draw our "Inner Editor Monsters" -- we make them good, too. Fangs, claws, red eyes, great hairy beasts that the kids LOVE drawing on that particular day of the year anyway. And we lock them in a "cage" made out of construction paper, not to be freed until December 1.
I do not allow them to read what they have written, except for a sentence or two to get their bearings.
You know, the rest of the year, I tear my own work apart. I read it half a dozen times before I start writing for the day -- IF I start writing for the day. But when I do NaNoWriMo alongside the kids, I somehow seem to lock up my own editor. I remind myself that the voice that's saying, "This is no good -- start over" is supposed to be locked up in a cage at the writing center. So I ignore that voice and keep going.
Must be why I wrote LIVVIE OWEN LIVED HERE as a NaNoWriMo novel. Also TEN THINGS THAT WON'T BURN. My two best, most complete novels, one of them on the path to publication -- written when I played a fun game alongside the kids and locked my inner editor up for a month.
Not saying you have to draw the picture. Just that there's something to be said for telling that little nagging inner voice to go AWAY for a while!
Sarah,
ReplyDeleteYou described exactly the monster editor that lives inside me.
Fangs, claws, red eyes, great hairy beasts - I honestly feel like it's alive and keeping me from "finishing" my novels. I have only one complete, and several unfinished. I'm determined to finish the project I'm writing now. Your advice helps. I have to visualize the editor as the enemy and not the friend when I start wanting to pull my novel apart before it's even built. thank you thank you thank you...