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If you’re part of a writers’ group, learn to distinguish feedback from advice.
Feedback tells you how people reacted to your writing. That’s valuable, and you should always pay attention to it. When readers don’t “get” what you’ve written, ask yourself why and what you can do to fix it. Advice, on the other hand, is often useless—it might be wrong, or it might describe a solution that doesn’t fit with your skills and/or taste. Always pay attention to feedback; take advice with a grain of salt. |
Review everything you write, and revise whatever needs changing. Editing a piece the same day you write it isn't good enough—review at least 24 hours later, when you've got a little distance and perspective. Do your best to see the piece from the reader's viewpoint; fix anything that doesn't get the right message across.
Part of reviewing is reading everything aloud. Notice where your tongue stumbles—if the words throw you off (even a little bit), readers will be thrown off too. They'll have to pause a moment, and maybe reread the sentence before they understand. You don't want that. Fix the sentence so you (and everyone else) can read it smoothly the first time.
If you do a significant amount of rewriting during a review, schedule another review...again, at least 24 hours later. Make sure your corrections are as smooth as you thought they were.
Knowing that you're going to rewrite later can have a liberating effect. You don't have to get everything right the first time—you can splash down words spontaneously, without worrying if they're perfect. I toss in all kinds of stuff when I write my first rough drafts: anything that comes to mind, the messier the better. If it doesn't work, I can remove it later...but often I find that something I created on a whim in Chapter 1 becomes absolutely crucial in Chapter 10. I can't count the number of times I've come to a point where I needed to solve some plot problem, then realized the solution lay in some minor detail I'd just thrown in for the sake of color earlier on. Serendipity is my friend; I rely on it absolutely.
| I start every writing day by reviewing what I wrote the day before. I also do a complete review after I finish a draft. Remember, when I talk about a “review” I mean rereading the piece (at least once out loud) and revising anything that needs to be changed. The revision process can often take longer than you spent writing the piece the first time; if that’s what it takes, so be it. |
Even if you don't depend on serendipity, you'll find it easier to start writing if you don't demand perfection
the first time around. Once you've written something (anything!), you have material you can work with. You have a
starting point instead of a blank piece of paper (or computer screen). Sometimes I find writing the first draft of
something to be as hard as pulling teeth; it only gets harder if you tell yourself it has to be perfect. I write rough stuff,
then make it better. That's what works for me.
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Copyright © 2001, James Alan Gardner