Hmm, you see that word counter on the right? Some of you might also notice that the amount I’ve written doesn’t seem to have changed very much and that the total I’m aiming for has gone down a bit too. Now let me say straightaway that any comments such as ‘What’s changed’ or ‘What have you been doing all this time?’ will go straight into that little bin symbol! There has been much wrestling behind the scenes and plenty of gnashing of teeth.
Rewriting ‘Fighting the Tide’ has proved to be another steep learning curve; you don’t have the intense thrill of the first draft to entice you on and you have all of the self-doubt and inner critic to hold you back. The only way forward, as I’ve belatedly discovered, is to write through it. Yep, you apply your bum to the seat, you open your laptop and you write. You write even when the inner critic is telling you, ‘That’s pants, that is!’ because, hey, some of what you’ve written might not be pants – how do you know until you’ve written it?
I caught the end of an item on ‘Today’ this morning when someone, (sorry, dear heart, I didn’t catch your name) was talking about the hundreds of hours he spent trying to fish for salmon (look, don’t shout at me if you don’t like it, I’m just giving you an example, right?). He said that all the fruitless hours are worth it for the moment when the fish twitches the line. It stuck me that there were parallels with writing; the long unproductive hours and many deleted words are forgotten in the rare and joyful moments when something rather wonderful rises to the surface.
For my final push I’ve joined The Finishers, set up by Lane of the Novel Racers. If you haven’t read Lane’s Write then do pop over and have a look; she’s very entertaining and her dogs are sooo cute (but don’t mention the cat at the moment). What more can I say?
Rewriting ‘Fighting the Tide’ has proved to be another steep learning curve; you don’t have the intense thrill of the first draft to entice you on and you have all of the self-doubt and inner critic to hold you back. The only way forward, as I’ve belatedly discovered, is to write through it. Yep, you apply your bum to the seat, you open your laptop and you write. You write even when the inner critic is telling you, ‘That’s pants, that is!’ because, hey, some of what you’ve written might not be pants – how do you know until you’ve written it?
I caught the end of an item on ‘Today’ this morning when someone, (sorry, dear heart, I didn’t catch your name) was talking about the hundreds of hours he spent trying to fish for salmon (look, don’t shout at me if you don’t like it, I’m just giving you an example, right?). He said that all the fruitless hours are worth it for the moment when the fish twitches the line. It stuck me that there were parallels with writing; the long unproductive hours and many deleted words are forgotten in the rare and joyful moments when something rather wonderful rises to the surface.
For my final push I’ve joined The Finishers, set up by Lane of the Novel Racers. If you haven’t read Lane’s Write then do pop over and have a look; she’s very entertaining and her dogs are sooo cute (but don’t mention the cat at the moment). What more can I say?
Comments
Crystal xx
You're absolutely right with the applying bum to seat and writing through it but 'the intense thrill of the first draft'? Oh I wish. At the moment I am dragging the first draft out kicking and screaming and it's causing me pain. I know what I want to say but getting it out in a fathomable order is soo hard. I'm looking forward to the edit so I can re-arrange it all and experience a new type of angst. I'm bored with this one:-)
And you my dear are almost finished. How great is that!
btw the dogs are basking in being called cute. They are so vain:-)
Good wishes and Godspeed with the book.
LBD x
Yes that lovely duo of self doubt and criticism are a powerful bunch.
Horrible if we let them be too powerful, yet in moderation, they probably do help the yeast to rise the bread. (Now that was truly clumsy, if well intentioned.)
What I mean is ... writing without any restraint is not always gonna produce many worthy words.
Painting with abandon can be great fun and give wondrous release, but come back to that canvas in a day, and it might be wise to approach it in a darkened room.
We have to create freely, and then know how to come back and take a second, or third peek at our creation.
And just keep going.
xo
JJx
Camilla.xx
Keep at at, you will spurn the rest of us no hopers on - well me really I'm sure the others are yes hopers!
I love Lane's write too - she is a great writer and always ery generous with her feedback.
I find it hard to re-read books because the excitement of something new isn't there can't imagine having to do a re-write, glad to hear that you are cracking on though.