It's been a long day. You come home from work, your feet aching and your eyes burning from eight hours of staring at a computer screen. The last thing you feel like doing is dragging out your work-in-progress to start revisions. But, you're not a quitter, so you pull the red-ink splotched draft out of your desk drawer (call me old-fashioned if you will, but after 8 hours on a computer, I'd rather read a print-out than another screen) and sit down to work. And every single word on the page is wrong.
I mean, "said"? How compelling a dialogue tag is that? But "snarled" sounds even dumber. And you totally overused "the."
At this point in the day, it's time to sit back, pour yourself some hot chocolate (or coffee, if you drink that swill) and take a breather. You are not the worst writer in the universe (if you need further reassurance of this, tune into the Soap channel for Days of Our Lives). Your manuscript also probably doesn't suck as much as you think it does. You just need to take a time-out and remind yourself what's so great about writing anyway.
Since I enjoy making lists (as if you can't tell that from reading this blog), I'll share my own personal top ten reminders (the ones that keep me sane on days like the above), in no particular order:
1) It's a great escape. When something is really bothering me - a situation at home, a bad mood, anything - I can always escape by writing. When I'm writing, I forget about the rest of the world, because I'm living in the world inside my head (where no one thinks I'm crazy for saying that).
2) I can go back and edit what I write, unlike when I'm speaking to someone and I say something absolutely idiotic (which happens rather more frequently than I would like).
3) I can let my imagination run wild. Unlike during class, when it's less than productive to daydream about demon sorcerers appearing to discuss their plot for world destruction with my professor.
4) Punctuation. I know I'm a dork - but come on, who doesn't love the all-purpose dash? Or the semi-colon; once you learned how to use it effectively, it can be tons of fun (as long as you take care not to overuse it...).
5) When a reader asks a question or says something about a scene I wrote that is exactly what I wanted them to ask. Even if they are confused about something - if I wanted them to be confused at that point, it's a good thing. It means I'm making the story say what I wanted it to.
6) Feedback. Call me crazy, but I love hearing it. Even negative feedback almost always sparks new ideas in my brain - I see new ways to handle a scene, a different plot-twist, a way to better clarify something. Those moments are what propel my editing process, what make it rewriting and not just editing.
7) Rereading. Okay, so often I don't enjoy this. Often it is painful; it makes me cringe; it makes me realize how much more editing I have to do. But even when it's painful, in rereading I see the sparkly kernel at the center of the story - the reason I began writing the thing, the soul of the piece that makes me want to do that next revision, to keep pushing until the whole story sparkles the way that crunchy centerpiece does. It's exausting, but I know that in the end, it will be worth it to see the finished product.
8) The sound keyboards make. Especially typewriter keyboards - but unfortunately it takes a lot of work to edit a page written on a typewriter. So I'll stick with the more practical, less musical computer keyboard.
9) Breakthrough moments. Sometimes they happen unprompted, without feedback from a reader or vigorous pondering on my part. Sometimes (though rarely), a scene just falls into place; a perfect ending pops into my head; a character's voice finally clicks. It is those moments when I know my muse does occasionally like me (even though she gives me a hard time the rest of the day).
10) To tell a story. At the end of the day, isn't that what we all do? Some of us write music, some of us paint, some of us just talk to our friends and family. And some of us write.
No comments:
Post a Comment