You know it very nearly happened this morning...I almost climbed back on that damn treadmill after less than 24 hours ago promising myself I wouldn't. I sat in front of the screen and began trawling through pages and pages telling myself it wasn't quite right, not quite good enough too little detail...blah, blah, blah...
Fortunately help was at hand in the form of my daughter who asked if I would take her up to the little local library. I spent a very pleasant hour flicking through the opening pages of a variety of books that I wouldn't normally read and realised they were just the kind of story that I am currently telling...or trying to anyway. I felt a lot better when I looked at all those books on the shelves and told myself 'yes, it can be done!'
Combine that with a stiff post-lunch talking to and I've just sat back down and forced myself to get on with it. Result: 50,550 words. I think that's another 3,000 on top of what I'd got yesterday. So, if in doubt...take a break, have a read of what others have already written and then just get on with it.
It sounds so easy... the words of advice flow so easily out of the ends of my fingers and yet... the actual 'doing' is oh so hard! I have a feeling that this won't be the last time I have one of these wobbles and you lot of course will be the first to hear about it!
Well done, hang in there! I seem to spend more time editing than I do writing, so much so that I'm trying to ban myself completely from looking over anything. That's definitely my biggest weakness as a writer and it drives me mad, but no one can stop me doing it except myself.
ReplyDeleteWell it's comforting to know it isn't just me but that's hardly any help to you! I think our fixation is fairly common though as I was reading in writing magazine last week that quite often writer's fail to complete novels beacuse they get bogged down with editing before they have actually finished the manuscript.
DeletePerhaps we should have a joint Easter resolution - no more editing until we've written the very last sentence!
Sounds like a good idea! I sometimes think I was born to be an editor. I love the editing so much more than the writing part!
ReplyDelete