Write to Live and Live to Write

Success as a writer means finishing and publishing documents. Selling a few books would be nice, but marketing is another thing altogether. Now, my thoughts are turned full on to the production process. My process is slow because I have developed bad habits. It is time to examine those habits holding me back and rid myself of them.

Write Don’t Edit

I’ve heard this for years, acknowledged it, and ignored it. Editing the story, tinkering with the text, correcting misspelled words, cleaning up your copy, and any other Euphemism a writer cares to throw up in defense is pointless. MIND YOU: I DON”T PRACTICE WHAT I PREACH HERE.

Yesterday as part of the Writer’s Boot camp, were performed a ten minute exercise using the prompt, “At noon, the last camel died.” The point of the exercise is to get a clear idea of the narrative your want to write in the mind, and sit down for ten minutes and write. No editing. No going back. No agonizing over the perfect word.
Work with the premise that all first drafts are shit, and get the shit on the page fast as possible so you can begin the real work.

I have a habit over the years of constantly tickering with text as I write. If I get the dreaded read underline that tells me I misspelled a word, I go back and fix it. If i knonw tha tI did not capatlize “i” fix it. Constant tinkering does not allow your narrative to flow, and it slows the writing down to a crawl.

I have caught myself doing that here in this post. I should be writing, getting the words on the page, not hitting the wrong key and backspacing to clear the word. If I just get it down, I can edit later.

ITS SO DAMN HARD!

Learning an Unlearning Habits is Difficult

So here I find myself working to unlearn bad habits. Whetinger I am pantsing, plantsing, or planning I should just sit and touches those keys to bring out that sigh of a shitty story. If I can beat this, I willl overcome my lack of output.

Changing my life begins now.