A few days ago, I decided I would inflict upon myself a writing bootcamp. It seems like all I’ve done since the beginning of this blog is report on how things are not going well on chapter 3…4…5…6…and so on. It’s not that things go bad, it’s just that I take forever to get a chapter done. Yesterday I sat in my chair and forced myself to finish chapter nine.
There! I thought to myself. I’m just being lazy. When I’m not dodging writing and actually doing it, things go a lot faster! I turned triumphantly to chapter ten, and then turned right back to chapter nine because I had to fix it. Nothing happened in the entire chapter. I completely missed the fact that Elizabeth has had no less than four major tramatic experiences (including kidnapping) and not one single mental break down. I was so busy trying to force myself to finish the chapter so I could finish the draft, that I missed the point of editing in the first place. Now I’ve got to rewrite the chapter again. This time carefully.
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that forcing yourself to write only works on the first draft. What do you think?
A.M. Kuska's Blog 
Sep 17, 2010 @ 13:07:06
Forced writing may not work on the first draft either and may lead to more revision or rewriting later on. On the other hand, we don’t accomish anything by procrastinating. I don’t really know the answer. What we think about often we are not likely to abandon. The greatest enemy is frustration that destroys our positive outlook. I am finding that commenting and posting exercise the writing muscle and reading posts and comments of others adds depth to my own creativity. Balancing the time we have is the challenge. Keeping a positive perspective will turn the efforts we make into fruitful endeavors. Don’t let that muse writers talk about push you off a cliff. God is good and he will help you navigate the alligator swamp of life safely. I understand how you feel. I get that way, too. Take a break from everything long enough to recover. You will shine. You do shine. You are one of my favorite bloggers. Thank you for sharing.
Sep 17, 2010 @ 13:07:55
I think so.
There is something to be said for seat-of-pants-applied-to-chair forcing . It’s a lot of the idea behind NaNoWriMo, I think. Just get the words out. Important.
But writing is one thing. Editing is another. Both essential, but it’s a two-step process.
You learned something with Chapter 9 that will serve you well. All good.
I think the god of efficiency likes to whisper “See how you wasted valuable writing time?” Don’t let him run your life. The thing is to get the story told, completely and well. There will be stumbles, do-overs and delays. None of those are necessarily mistakes, but just part of the journey and when you learn a writing lesson, it will benefit this work and all future work.
Okay, off my soapbox. 🙂
You’re doing great.