Herding the cow
The first draft will never be perfect; a rough draft does not make a marketable product.
There will be typing mistakes, grammatical train wrecks, unnecessary words, and misshapen ambiguities.
It’s okay to have these in the rough draft. If you don’t find these in the rough draft you’re not reading your work back carefully enough.
Get some distance between yourself and the story before you read it back- say a minimum of six weeks, lest you inadvertently maim it with over zealous editing.
The first redraft will be the most drastic in terms of what you cut away, and what you change. Don’t be afraid of beating the story into shape, when you see it with fresh eyes.
There will be things to change, there will be things you shouldn’t.
Good editing relies on the ability to distinguish between the two.
4 comments:
Agree completely, but is six weeks not kind of a long time?
Heya, Tam. Six weeks can seem hellishly long, but the first time you pick up the page to edit over something, you want the first words you see to be completely fresh to your mind. You’ve got to be looking in a, “Wow, I’ve never read this before kind,” of way before you’re ready to edit. Then the mistakes, the twists and the bent language really stand out. The idea with editing is to perfect one your story, and that is a process of revision that requiring accurate assessment of the quality of our work. I suggest six weeks, I’m not sure what other people suggest (I think Stephen King suggests a similar time frame) but six weeks isn’t mandatory. It’s just a case of taking as long as you need to do the job properly.
To be honest six weeks seems like forever when you’re doing the sitting and waiting. I usually take that time to write out rough drafts and get the ideas out of my head that were running hard when I was writing the first draft = )
Tam runs a great blog called, “Fighting with writing” where he offers his experiences, observations, intelligence and witticisms about writing- you can find a link in the toolbar to the left = )
Excellent points and suggestions. You are right on the money! I have noticed that writer's who "really" care about their work, their words, tend to "worry too much. I include myself in this equation.
And so I must always remind myself to write, just write and let the juices flow, and then I should worry about the editing. I tell my students all the time to do just this. When their ideas flow without inhibitions from their heart and mind unto the paper, their writing is "really good." Yes, the paper may have errors, but we can always return and "fix." Fixing is easy, I say. The difficult part is maintaining the quality and passion of our thoughts as they race to find a spot on the paper.
My writing philosophy campares very closely to yours. Loved this post. :)
@ The Fearless Blog, I think the hardest thing to do sometimes is to just let go and write. I know that I always worry, “Is this thing going to be so great, given the effort I’m putting in?” I know though, if I put in everything I’ve got, most of the time, I can make something happen, if not, well, next time, I’ll go in better prepared. I’ve got a folder labeled “Floaters,” stories that never seemed to do that write thing. There was nothing wrong with them, but every once in a while I come back to these, rewrite them, and see what happens.
Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t, but it’s worth it. I love my stories a little too much, and always come back, constantly working over an idea to try and make it work.
I count myself as lucky, because my writing is my free time; I get to flip out, I can write anything, and see what happens, why not? My serious writing has to be serious, but when I’m writing for entertainment ( I always assumed that to be for me as well as others) I want to have fun with the writing, it lets me be more honest show what really happened (for better and worse) and really revel in the words- they come by themselves, it’s like wrapping a warm blanket about yourself.
I agree, we have very similar philosophies on writing; I extend that the philosophies that drive good writing should be a reflection of the philosophies that we live by where in ethic is attributed to action. Which is one of the great things about your blog- (“The Fearless blog” – link in bar to the left) You articulate these philosophies into every day life.
Encouraging students to write what they think they should write is great. This sort of development and articulation of ideas and thoughts is a great way to develop understanding. I always think of how hard I found algebra for years- I couldn’t get a grip on it, and then I was given a different explanation of how it worked and it was the simpilest thing in the world.
“The Anatomy” lets me develop my own understanding of what writing is, and I tie those lessons closely to those I’ve learned in life. Take the time, be patient, work at what you want to achieve, and above all else, persist. Don’t stop trying to improve.
Thanks for the comment, and I’m glad you enjoyed the post- I’m really enjoying editing and polishing “The Cow series” before post time. It’s the best articulation of my life philosophy I can derive = )
Post a Comment