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Don’t Waste Your Time Starting Over…and over…and over…and over…

28 Oct

We are all guilty of this. We start a project, don’t like the way it sounds and rewrite it. Then, after a short period of time, we reread the project, STILL don’t like it…and rewrite it again. This, my fellow writers, can turn into a vicious circle.

I have been there, in fact I still am with what I refer to as my Cluster F@#* novel. (Pardon my language) This particular novel has been an eight year project just because I never seem to find the time to follow through in any given length of time. I work on it, put it down and then when I go back to it my writer brain screams…”no, no, that’s all wrong”. I have literally rewritten the story about 15 times. Will that story ever get published? Maybe…but obviously not with any help from me right now.

There is a reason why seasoned writers will tell you to make it through the first draft before you edit. We are our own worst enemies when it comes to that internal editor. If we don’t get the story down on paper, we will never finish it at all. We will, instead, edit, rewrite, edit, rewrite…and it will go on forever.

Keep in mind that whatever you get down on paper may not be exactly what you originally wanted to say in the way that you wanted to say it…that’s okay….that’s what the editing process is for. This is the place we can take the sum parts of our stories and move them around until we have built the story we meant to tell. Its okay not to say it exactly correct the first time around, at least you have your main pieces on the page.

So before you go over that story for the 90th time…stop and give yourself a break. Just get it out there, say it…then go back over it and edit it.

 
© The Writer’s Advice, 2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

 
 

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