In comments on outlining, Camille points out Janni Lee Simner's post on Nothing wasted, nothing lost, which is all about the process and the wonderous messyness that is the real writing process. It was so good I thought it needed to be brought forward so you all wouldn't miss it. Write much, fail gloriously, write more, rewrite it. Or as Ann Lamonte said in Bird by Bird, write the crappy first draft, get it done and out. Only once that's done can the good stuff arrive. In the process, nothing is wasted, nothing is lost.
All those stories I wrote that are sitting on my hard drive stagnating, a slow iron death of words, they all tought me something. Even the many thousands of words I've cut or rewritten on the stories that I'm sending out, they all tought me something. They were all necessary.
Also, via pllogan's We can Always Dream, is Kate Logan's Deep Genre's Advice to the First Time Novelist. Which boils down to, if you can quit, do so, if not, never give up.
It's a sickness. I can't give it up.
2 comments:
...My obsession and my compulsion...
Oh yes. Here I am, looking out at the lake in the middle of the woods, and I'm warming up to start writing. It's a sickness.
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