Recently I had a conversation with a “new” writer. This person was a grade-school teacher for many years, and has done all sorts of writing throughout her life and career. Now she is writing purely for pleasure. Hearing her talk about how she’d rather not do the polishing and re-writing thing, how she’d rather go on to write another piece, made me full-on pause.
Love this…knowing when to let a piece ‘go’…like painting…some of them you could work on forever. I do love the challenge of rewriting-going deeper, into the forest, hoping to come out cleaner and fresher. :)
Also like how writing a piece can be a learning and nothing more - just for the exercise.
Writing for pleasure? I write more out of need…but there is pleasure when something works out the way I want. Pleasure is my reward. 😊
For me, there is a difference between writing the first draft and subsequent revisions. The first draft feels the most like "writing" to me. That said, I spend one-third of my time on a book writing the first draft and two-thirds revising it. The revision process is, in some ways, kind of peaceful -- until you reach the last two or three revisions, where it then can become tedious, to say the least.
May 10, 2023·edited Jun 8, 2023Liked by Alison Acheson
When I write fiction and poetry it is purely for pleasure. Both forms allow me to write in an unfiltered way, as I am in the cinema of my mind. I do go back and laboriously add the required scenic details that other readers need. I've recently switched to allowing dialogue free rein. It's less frustrating for sketching in a scene and recognizing the beats. For me writing blogs are like piano practice. Essential to remaining strong yet limber.
A work of art is never finished, merely abandoned... Not sure who said that but this is what came to mind reading your great post, Alison. I find it hard to know when to stop re-writing and move on. It's usually when I start second guessing everything: The Title, the start, the end, the characters...everything. And I fear I'm f..king up as many things as I fix. That's when you really need someone outside of you to give you notes and some objective perspective. I give those I trust permission to say: STOP! THAT'S ENOUGH. YOUR WORK IS DONE HERE! (or at least as done as you'll ever be able to do...given your talents/limits). I am bad a falling in love with the new idea...and falling out of love with what drew me to write something in the first place. That's also a good time to move on. All that said - it's a good day if I'm re-writing one thing and also writing a new thing. The End remembers the Beginning :) Yes, great advice. It's what https://savethecat.com/ by Blake Snyder talks about. The opening image of a film / play / story should mirror the final image somehow. If the opening is of ISOLATION - someone alone on a beach, maybe the final image is one of COMMUNITY - the same person celebrating with friends/family/found family on a beach. cheers DG
Love this…knowing when to let a piece ‘go’…like painting…some of them you could work on forever. I do love the challenge of rewriting-going deeper, into the forest, hoping to come out cleaner and fresher. :)
Also like how writing a piece can be a learning and nothing more - just for the exercise.
Writing for pleasure? I write more out of need…but there is pleasure when something works out the way I want. Pleasure is my reward. 😊
For me, there is a difference between writing the first draft and subsequent revisions. The first draft feels the most like "writing" to me. That said, I spend one-third of my time on a book writing the first draft and two-thirds revising it. The revision process is, in some ways, kind of peaceful -- until you reach the last two or three revisions, where it then can become tedious, to say the least.
When I write fiction and poetry it is purely for pleasure. Both forms allow me to write in an unfiltered way, as I am in the cinema of my mind. I do go back and laboriously add the required scenic details that other readers need. I've recently switched to allowing dialogue free rein. It's less frustrating for sketching in a scene and recognizing the beats. For me writing blogs are like piano practice. Essential to remaining strong yet limber.
A work of art is never finished, merely abandoned... Not sure who said that but this is what came to mind reading your great post, Alison. I find it hard to know when to stop re-writing and move on. It's usually when I start second guessing everything: The Title, the start, the end, the characters...everything. And I fear I'm f..king up as many things as I fix. That's when you really need someone outside of you to give you notes and some objective perspective. I give those I trust permission to say: STOP! THAT'S ENOUGH. YOUR WORK IS DONE HERE! (or at least as done as you'll ever be able to do...given your talents/limits). I am bad a falling in love with the new idea...and falling out of love with what drew me to write something in the first place. That's also a good time to move on. All that said - it's a good day if I'm re-writing one thing and also writing a new thing. The End remembers the Beginning :) Yes, great advice. It's what https://savethecat.com/ by Blake Snyder talks about. The opening image of a film / play / story should mirror the final image somehow. If the opening is of ISOLATION - someone alone on a beach, maybe the final image is one of COMMUNITY - the same person celebrating with friends/family/found family on a beach. cheers DG