A Writer's Journey: The Drudgery of Editting

Write . . . Scrap . . . Crop

The Drudgery of Editting

Anyone who thinks writing is easy hasn't actually done it. I used to read books and think, shoot, I can do better than that! And I still do that, but now I do it with a realistic attitude. People who write books work hard to create the characters, develop the plot, write the story, edit it, rewrite it, find an agent, find a publisher, and then beat the pavement to sell the book. I have a lot of respect for anyone who does that. I get frustrated at times waiting for success. People approach me and say, "How's the writing going?" or "When are you going to get another book published?" I wish I had a good answer, but the real answer is that it is a long, hard process and it takes time. Especially when I work full time and still want to have time for my family. NaNoWriMo helps me tremendously with the first step of the process: drafting. I know that I can get one novel a year drafted because of NaNo. That part of it is fun, exciting and new. And then comes the hard part: rewriting and editting. This part I struggle with, which is why I have four novel drafts sitting around waiting to be polished. I never would have anything polished if it weren't for my critique group. If you want to be a successful writer, I strongly urge you to consider joining or creating a critique group. I've discussed this before, but I can't stress enough how important it is to get feedback on your writing and, perhaps more importantly, encouragement and support. Writing is a lonely endeavor, so it is very important that you do something to keep from isolating yourself. Isolation may initially help your creativity - but once you have your story drafted, total isolation stifles your creativity, it must be incubated carefully, encouraged and fed.

I've been deep in editting/rewriting mode for the past week and, for some reason, it is really clicking for me right now, so I'm going to get back to it.

Have a good weekend, and give thought to what you can do to make your dreams become a reality - then do it.

Elle

Posted by Elle Robb at 3/28/2009 5:25 PM