Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Strictly Writing: Nothing Beats Time

I owe this blog a proper post but it's probably a good sign that I've been too busy - with writing-related doings, of course! In the meantime, I have a guest blog post on the excellent Strictly Writing blog today, where I come clean about my failure to leave a new story long enough so that I could see what it needed doing.
Finally, I wrote a 1000-word story. I was excited to have something “long” (yes, you may snicker). I was so in love with the voice and the language, I thought it was great. I gave it to my writing group for critique, they spotted places where more information was needed but didn't give any “big picture” comments. So I thought, wow, that was quick: a finished story, and swiftly dispatched it to several competitions.

Read the rest of the blog post here. Does this happen to you too?

5 comments:

Lauri said...

I am also sometimes too quick on the gun with regrets after the send button is pressed. Off to read the guest blog....

(Off topic- my word verification word is MATHLET- how sweet is that? That's about the math I can do nowadays, little mathlets. )

Ethel Rohan said...

I've been guilty of this, for sure. Thankfully, I've become more disciplined. The urge to rush work out must be resisted. I never regret waiting, versus .... Time gives me distance from my work, allows me to re-see and re-imagine it.

Rachel Fenton said...

I've done this only recently when I heard of a competition (um wonder where?) and quickly wrote a bunch of stories to add to some I already had and sent them off only to sorely wish I had waited another week or two. You live and learn. Off to read your guest blog now :)

Tania Hershman said...

Lauri - I love MATHLET, I am finding I can barely do maths anymore, can't even add up restaurant bills properly. So much for the uni degree, eh?

Ethel, good for you, I am impressed. You are right, waiting is not something to be regretted, and it's cheaper!

Rachel, hmm, is it my fault? Argh, sorry! Good luck, though, you never know...

N. P. Boyce said...

I always dread reading back anything once it's submitted, as it is at this point that I notice word repetitions, clumsy phrasing, and the odd ghastly typo.

The problem is that time seems to have little to do with this - I think the very act of submitting somehow lifts the veil...

I see writing as being a bit like sculpture. You have to carve your story out. For me, the first draft is there to provide the raw material for this process, and nothing more.