A Different Spin

Post date: Apr 24, 2017 2:19:51 PM

I've heard and read a lot of writing advice. Haven't tried it all, but I've let it swim around in my brain and marinate. Well, recently, for Lent, I thought I'd try and finish the novel I started and let sit while I picked at its bones. As Easter approached, I begin to get queasy. Nervous I wouldn't reach the coveted "End".

So, I fell back on some advice I ready a while ago and was repeated to me during the last week leading up to Easter Sunday: write the scenes you want to write and fill in the gaps later.

The problem I kept coming back to, while writing, was that scenes would bounce into my head and distract me from the one I currently tried to write. Instead of forcing the intruding scenes onto the back burner, I wrote them. It left me with an interesting manuscript.

The rough draft was finished before Easter. I reached "The End", but the arbitrary deadline I had set for myself. Now, I just need to polish it, edit it, and connect the dots to make it into a first draft. Then, I'll consider letting it sit on a shelf, pass it along to Alpha Readers, and let my brain move away from it to focus on something else. That way, I can look on it with fresh eyes and not feel so disappointed when people criticize it.

Then, I can start the second draft and incorporate those comments with a calm mind. Hopefully, making the story better by cutting my ego out of the process.