Sometimes, when reading through random blogs, tweets, and other various social media posts, I find myself telling others that they can achieve their goals. These are people… Read more “Uplifting Encouragement”
Tag: self doubt
The Dreaded Process of Self-Editing
Over the past three weeks I have been attempting, seemingly in vain, to edit a novel I wrote three years ago and promptly refused to look at again. This is that story thus far…
In the middle of 2017 I started the process of writing a sequel to it, and subsequently had to fact check some information in the first novel. I cringed at what I had written. Only one person I know read the work after I had “completed” it, and upon reading a single page of the work I contacted that person and apologized for what they had read.
This is not an overstatement of how bad the work was, it is terrible. I feel better knowing that I can tell myself honestly that my pride and joy first novel was a total piece of garbage. Yet, probably because it’s my baby, I still have faith in the overall story contained in the jumbled, incomplete, and sometimes completely incoherent storyline contained in its pages.
Everyday I sit at my desk and stare at a page from it. It’s grueling to even proofread, and ultimately I am slowly rewriting the entire thing. Truth be told, that’s what it comes to sometimes. Even if I dread deleting all that work paragraph by paragraph, most days accomplishing nothing on it.
In three weeks I have only managed to make it through about fifty pages, and the only thing that makes me keep going back to it is the hope that when I reach the end it’ll be a decent story. I’m being honest with myself on my writing in all aspects. There are good qualities and bad qualities about every author (which is why editors exist) and I know that if I can make it through this I can edit anything else I’ll ever write.
So the things I’ve learned already in the last three weeks that I’m going to share with you tonight are as follows:
Always be honest with yourself!
Commit to the project, even if you falter at times, it’ll be better than the first run through it. (It has to be, right? :-P)
Sometimes it’s quicker and easier to rewrite than it is to edit.
Thanks for reading my rant! I hope your creativity is flowing and your self doubt is minimal! (considering that we can’t be artists without it…)
~ Jon~
Write One Page Per Day – 14/365 – January 14, 2018
Continued from January 13, 2018 He was old. Even compared to me. His grey hair was well kept and medium length. He looked worn out, as though he… Read more “Write One Page Per Day – 14/365 – January 14, 2018”
Write One Page Per Day – 9/365 – January 9, 2018
Alice held the letter in her shaking hand, afraid to open it. It was from Thomas, her boyfriend. He had left it on his pillow at some… Read more “Write One Page Per Day – 9/365 – January 9, 2018”
Write from the heart…
Emotions are the bridge between author and reader, but it’s not a simple as using words like sad, happy, excited, etc. To elicit emotion in a reader… Read more “Write from the heart…”
Just one sentence…
Everything we writers put on paper begins with a single, practically meaningless, out-of-context sentence. I know, lots of writers are probably thinking “that’s total bulls**t,” but hear… Read more “Just one sentence…”
Jonathan M. Leighton, Jr. 