It’s the first Wednesday of the month, and time for another Insecure Writers support Group post.
You ready?
Let’s rock the neurotic writing world!
Let’s rock the neurotic writing world!
June 2 question – For how long do you shelve your first draft, before reading it and re-drafting? Is this dependent on your writing experience and the number of stories/books under your belt?
The awesome co-hosts for the June 2 posting of the IWSG are J Lenni Dorner,Sarah Foster,Natalie Aguirre,Lee Lowery, and Rachna Chhabria!
The awesome co-hosts for the June 2 posting of the IWSG are J Lenni Dorner,Sarah Foster,Natalie Aguirre,Lee Lowery, and Rachna Chhabria!
The collective wisdom that is passed around is that a writer should wait several weeks after finishing a first draft to begin editing. Time enough for the words to sit and to let the author come back to it with fresh eyes. Sounds good, but I’m bad at following good advice. Even before I’ve written The End, I’m finding words and paragraphs that need changed. Or added. Or deleted. If I can wait a day or two to start editing, I’m doing good.
Except there are other stories that I’ve written, leaned back, and said “That’ll never work.” And it goes into archives without doing any additional work on it at all. Then there are the stories I wrote over five years ago, that I keep coming back to, trying to figure out how I can make them marketable.
That’s part of the dilemma I’m facing with my current WIP. I think I’ve got a solid basis for the story, but it’s a different style and genre than I’ve ever written, and I’m unsure if I can whip it into shape. Still, I can’t put it away and I keep pecking at it, fixing a word here, deleting a phrase there. I’ve been unable to ignore it and give myself the space I need to look at it objectively.
I’m worried I’m more in love with the character than the story, and that’s bad. Then I read a line and think “That’s really good!” What I need to do is throw a chapter out to a critique group and let them tear it apart.
But it’s hard to make the story (and me) wait. I want to get it out of my system one way or the other so I can move along to my next adventure.
Let’s find out if other authors struggle with waiting to edit by following the links below.
And, until next time, please stay safe!
I think a lot of writers have that project that they can’t leave alone. It must be a sign that there’s something there. Writing in a different style is good, I’d say, it’s how we learn and grow. I would definitely seek feedback – critiques are a great sounding board to gauge whether something might have legs.
Thanks for the encouragement. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so puzzled by a book I’ve written.
I love that phrase: more in love with the character than the story. I have definitely been there. All the best with it and all your writing endeavors.
Thank you! Funny thing about the character – Jake. He’s a bad guy that keeps doing good things. I want the readers to love him and hate him at the same time.