Tuesday, June 23, 2009

I've only got a week?

Right, we've talked about pushing yourself through, we've talked about cheating your way to the end, now let's talk about your writing.
It's not a Hugo Award winner right now is it?
Can I tell you a secret?
Even Hugo award winners first drafts are crap, with the exception of probably a couple of geniuses. Every writer will tell you their first draft is really them sorting out where the story is going, who's in it and what big things happen. It's not until the first or second draft that they start liking what they've written.
So here's the deal. Turn off your inner editor. I know you've got one, sitting on your shoulder every time you write telling you that that word is spelled wrong, you're splicing that comma, who in the world would say that?
It happens to every writer. The successful ones don't listen to it, they just keep the words flowing out, and if they get stuck they put a little asterix or something saying that "XX happens here" and then skip that section and work on the next. If there's a fact you need to look up, don't. Instead just leave yourself a comment (and you can do this in word by going up to Insert on the toolbar, then scroll down to comment, and it will insert a comment right there. You can then say "find out who the heck developed the carbon/lithium battery" and go back to getting your story down.
The crux of the matter is, you need to get down the skeleton of your story, you can add embellishments galore when you edit, but for now, get it down.
TURN OFF your Inner Editor, write like the wind Bullseye!

2 comments:

Mon Wood said...

Great advice, Nat. And I adore Bullseye - those eyes are just so adorable!

Off to increase my word count...

Angie Peters said...

Thanks for the timely reminder, Natalie :)