(not) doing it wrong
Feb. 1st, 2010 02:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aamcnamaraIt is sort of astounding just how frequently I assume that I am Doing It Wrong when it comes to writing. Regardless of how many times I am told that there is no one way, et cetera, et cetera.
Still! Lately I have not started anything new. Instead I have been poking on and off at this short story I wrote in August. I wrote the first draft with great assurance and emotion, which made it hard if not impossible to look at it objectively. I still cannot really look at it objectively, but it's easier now to look at craft and not "ooh look at this shiny thing I found!".
A lot of the pieces of the story tie together nicely already. There was one loose end, though, and this morning I had some time to sit and think about it, and whether I should excise that element completely or weave it in, and if weaving, in what way. And I figured out how it could weave in, and how it should weave in, and does.
It will take some delicate touches, and hopefully it will work. Maybe it won't, and then I will be back to the drawing board. But there you have it.
So my point to myself is that this is part of learning to write, too. Eventually maybe I will learn to work on many things at the same time, but there are clearly still things for my head to work out about this one. Which is totally legitimate.
(The reason I had time to think about it was because of a happy accident of scheduling this semester. My math class ends at ten, my next class is physics at eleven. They're in the same building complex, so even though my dorm is less than five minutes' walk away, it makes more sense to just hang out there. If all my classes were done at eleven and I had an hour before lunch, I'd probably spend it checking my email, but since I am Out and Doing Things, I can focus on writing. Win!)
Still! Lately I have not started anything new. Instead I have been poking on and off at this short story I wrote in August. I wrote the first draft with great assurance and emotion, which made it hard if not impossible to look at it objectively. I still cannot really look at it objectively, but it's easier now to look at craft and not "ooh look at this shiny thing I found!".
A lot of the pieces of the story tie together nicely already. There was one loose end, though, and this morning I had some time to sit and think about it, and whether I should excise that element completely or weave it in, and if weaving, in what way. And I figured out how it could weave in, and how it should weave in, and does.
It will take some delicate touches, and hopefully it will work. Maybe it won't, and then I will be back to the drawing board. But there you have it.
So my point to myself is that this is part of learning to write, too. Eventually maybe I will learn to work on many things at the same time, but there are clearly still things for my head to work out about this one. Which is totally legitimate.
(The reason I had time to think about it was because of a happy accident of scheduling this semester. My math class ends at ten, my next class is physics at eleven. They're in the same building complex, so even though my dorm is less than five minutes' walk away, it makes more sense to just hang out there. If all my classes were done at eleven and I had an hour before lunch, I'd probably spend it checking my email, but since I am Out and Doing Things, I can focus on writing. Win!)