Write it all down.
Keep writing.
Just write.
I was told to do all of the above. It was drilled into me over and over. Keep it up. Get the words down. Keep at it. Write it and don't worry about it now but keep stringing words together. Put a timer on and go until the alarm goes off. Just words and more words and then more words.
I tried and I did. I had a hard time because I didn't know what the heck I was doing. I didn't understand the concept of writing words to only have words. I was trying to do more than fill up a page and I didn't see how 'just write' was right. I fought it the entire way but I kept doing it because it was the way to do it. Everyone said so.
What I found out was that they were holding back on other things I should have known. Maybe they didn't know. Maybe they couldn't figure it out so gave the only advise they ever heard. I wrote an entire 70,000 first draft completed piece of fiction that is only good for pages and pages of word after word. That was when I realized how much longer I was going to have to keep writing. This was only a first draft and everyone will tell you it's not the stopping point. There are many more drafts to come.
Wait, wait, wait. Can I get ALL the instructions at the beginning, please? Just write is a good way to start but it was being taken as the instructions for completion. Sorry. It isn't. There is so much more. I should have known that was too simple. Just write? Sure. Look at me go. I was envisioning the brilliance and how each word should be engraved on a page. It was fun. It made me feel like rock star but it wasn't real.
What this did for me was give me the experience. It takes work and more words to fix all the words already written. That is the process. It's the part no one mentioned. Maybe they didn't know but I know now. I understand that after you write the words upon words, you can get down to the business of getting rid of a lot of those words so you can write the correct ones. All that writing, no matter how good or bad, gives the foundation to pull it all into what it should be. I know what to change since it exists on the page. All those words already created can be shaped into what they should become. Will it take work? Yes. Lots. It will need to be broken down to be built back up. It will take major deleting of words to be replaced by more words that will do it all better. So I've come full circle with the advice as I start again.
Write it all down.
Keep writing.
Just write.
I can see where this advice can seem to be a little deceitful in its representation. I am figuring out the process and will be more planned and a little more calculated when I begin again. It will still have elements of the 'just write' theory in order to let those creative ideas flow but will have a firmer hand on the overall progression of the plot and characters. Maybe the advice was good and I had to experience it to learn the process. Maybe. But is doesn't seem just right.
TT
0 comments:
Post a Comment