Possibly unwanted advice

[maderr]

I have a lot of people on my flist doing nano. I think this is cool, especially since I am no longer doing nano. I always had fun with it.

However, I see people already struggling for a reason they do not need to be struggling. It's perhaps one of the hardest things to learn in writing. Maybe I'm being pretentious, or snotty, or whatever. I'm no widely published author with droves of fans who can speak as a real authority--but I do know this much:

Stop editing. Stop looking back, stop erasing and rewriting what you don't like. Just stop. Don't worry about what is already written. Write, keep going foward, and do not look back. This is one of the worst things you can do. Never go back over stuff unless you need to remember some detail or exactly the way a conversation went. Do not reread, and decide you do not like it, and write it over. That's the purpose of the editing stage. If you are in the writing stage, you are not in the editing stage, so stop editing. Believe me, it's easier to change stuff later than to constantly rework as you go. That will discourage you more than you realize. Jot notes, or whatever works for you, and make those changes after the story is done.

So knock it off, and keep writing. Write now, change later.

My two cents, I apologize if it comes off in some negative or offensive fashion.

Comments

[niravive.livejournal.com]

...thank you. that's what I needed to hear (yet again) at the moment. *gets her butt back to typing up the gay porn*

[maderr.livejournal.com]

Gay porn FTW!

[newtypeshadow.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you said that. I totally agree.

I have a friend who finished the nano wordcount a few years ago, but not her story, because she stopped halfway through and rewrote everything. It was really unfortunate. She's a good writer, and her story probably would have turned out fine if she'd saved the editing for later.

I think unless writing that way comes naturally to you, though, it's hard to learn. Hard to make yourself stop the impulse to go back, to Fix Immediately.

Oh, Internal Editor, why do you throw tantrums? Why can you not just wait your turn?

[niravive.livejournal.com]

I figured I'd write what I wanted to read this year. Especially since I'm not sharing a computer. ^_________^

[maderr.livejournal.com]

It's something you have to train yourself to do? I'm a perfectionist at heart, I had to redo everything at first for a long time. But, it slowed me down and I was never happy, so I started forcing myself not to touch a damned thing. It's hard, and i still slip up, but it's much easier to write and get shit done now that I've mostly unlearned the habit.

[saaski-moql.livejournal.com]

Exactly! I'm a five year Nano-er and this is the advice I'm always doling out. "Write with a paper taped to your screen!" "Don't re-read things unless absolutely necessary!" "You do not have a backspace button." XD Nano is about the fun and stress of just getting your story out first and foremost. Making it good and better comes later.

And it can be hilarious when you're reading it in it's entirety for literally the first time. "Wait, I wrote what?"

Appreciated

[(Anonymous)]

Don't sell yourself short. You may not be exactly published (yet), but you've got a huge fanbase who'd probably do just about anything to keep reading your stories! Widespread acknowledgment is not the only sign of talent.

I, personally, am doing the nano and the weekly encouragement emails are pretty much the only thing keeping me going. In a lot of them, the authors basically say exactly what you are saying - and I found that it was way more believable when you from you. Alot because you are someone that's more on our level. Just starting out, so to speak, though you are far from novice-writing.

To know that the author, who I greatly admire, does this with some of the stories that I re-read constantly is powerful incentive.

So thank you for you two cents, I'll take 'em.^^'

[flamebyrd]

You can also minimise the back-reading you need to do by writing any details you'll need in future into a separate document! (Although I am very bad at remembering to do this.) If I can't remember the name of a city or don't want to stop to name a character I just insert a placeholder and keep going. The main villain in last year's NaNo was called Marc _____ the entire time, and the main character's city was only ever referred to as <city>.

... er, not that you need this advice, but maybe somebody else reading this thread will appreciate it?

This year my problem was that the story was only 23,000 words long. I don't have any advice for that one.

[maderr.livejournal.com]

Sammie does that. I tend to be more of a notebook by my keyboard type person. Since I write by hand as often as type, it helps to have them, uh, to hand, so to speak. Otherwise, I'll be at work and forget something, and I hate penciling in stuff like that (though, I do it if my only other choice is to stop writing).

[bleedtoblue.livejournal.com]

That's such excellent advice! If only I would follow it.

[maderr.livejournal.com]

*laugh*

[nikerymis.livejournal.com]

Off-topic -- that is a very pretty icon. I approve. ^___^

On-topic, I have nothing to add. ^__^

[maderr.livejournal.com]

*laugh* Thankee.

I also advise writing more, and sending my unloved inbox some loving.

[nikerymis.livejournal.com]

You would. ^__~ But alas, your inbox is going to have to suffer. I am working sooo slowly and it's all paper bound. But to tease, I'm writing Guylian and Tlory's first lesson? ::smirksmirk::

[maderr.livejournal.com]

YOu're just getting revenge for the last section of Midnight. Calling me evil! The temerity!

[nikerymis.livejournal.com]

What? I mean, it's not like I left you at the crucial climactic scene, waiting for the intrepid protagonists to finally meet the supervillain face-to-face.

[maderr.livejournal.com]

Now who would be evil and mean enough to do that?

[rustedinkwell.livejournal.com]

Thank you, I think I needed this.

And you might not be widely published, but you still have the droves of fans.

You just saved my term paper!

[(Anonymous)]

Actually, I really needed someone to tell me this as I didn't notice I was doing it and I was getting really upset that after one day, I had only written 2 measly paragraphs. I decide to take a break and check out your LJ and your comment made me realise that's what I've been doing the entire day!! (facepalm). Thanks, I'll go and write, write, write, lol.

tap tap tap

[charisstoma.livejournal.com]

" Maybe I'm being pretentious, or snotty, or whatever. I'm no widely published author with droves of fans who can speak as a real authority.."
Excuse me,as one of your adoring fans, I take issue with the quoted statement.
That being said, you gave good advise. Write now, edit later.

Re: tap tap tap

[maderr.livejournal.com]

I just constantly fear sounding arrogant or know-it-all. I see many of my so-called peers acting obnoxiously, and live in constant fear I will turn into the same.

Re: tap tap tap

[niravive.livejournal.com]

And seeing as I own several paper books with her name on them, too....

[thealisonbailey.livejournal.com]

I got this advice in every writing class I ever had -- creative or otherwise -- and yet our professors were always so upset with us when our first drafts needed extensive editing and rewriting. Hmmm.

[silrini.livejournal.com]

That makes a lot of sense. Now I must beat this habit out of me. Dammit. CURSE BAD HABITS!!!! I will put down my evil blue pen of editing. *le sigh*

[maderr.livejournal.com]

That's because it means more work for them.

Re: tap tap tap

[charisstoma.livejournal.com]

*nods head* Yes, I thought of that after I posted. There are some of those on a shelf here too.

[animeartistjo.livejournal.com]

Like a giant barf of plot. XD

BTW, did you get the e-mail? I sent it two addresses at the same time, so wasn't sure if it got sent right or not.

Re: tap tap tap

[charisstoma.livejournal.com]

Oh just hang around with us and feel the love. In my opinion you do way too good a job bringing yourself down. Get back up on that pedestal woman.
Speaking of publishing... DwtD in hard copy yet? I know I'm being obnoxious asking about this again but I've been reeeeeeeally good this year (don't look under the bed or closet)....

[bare-bear.livejournal.com]

Ah but see, they would like you to at least read the thing over once BEFORE you hand it in, to catch all the "adn" and "teh" and other silly problems like that. :D

[maderr.livejournal.com]

ebook? ^__^ I am finally reading it now, after I made myself work all day. Am most appreciative and grateful. Was going to email you and ask if there was anything I could give in exchange.

Re: tap tap tap

[maderr.livejournal.com]

No,no, you're right to pester. My beta made it bleed, there was so much red, and I've been slow to fix it all. I apologize.

[hyperjirou.livejournal.com]

Huh. In my experience they wanted the first draft proofread but not rewritten. As a result I actually consider proofreading and editing entirely different things now.

[kiyoshi-chan.livejournal.com]

I remember someone who went "AUUUUUUUUUUUGHHHHHHH" and essentially stuffed her fingers into her ears when I made the mistake of going "um, isn't that supposed to be..." I have since learned my lesson. :O I'LL BE GOOD AND NOT MAKE THOSE COMMENTS UNTIL DECEMBER.

[thealisonbailey.livejournal.com]

"Careless errors" like typos were one thing. Those you got reamed in front of the entire class for -- especially when it involved homonyms. (Yes, I know my "to, too and twos" apart.) Run-ons, fragments and excessive use of the dash (I got that one a lot) were another. Spell check, yes do that. But when it comes to getting everything on the page, you get half thoughts, thoughts that go on forever and ever, thoughts that change in midstream -- those things happen. Leaving out words, that I saw a lot of too. I remember asking "where's your verb?" in our peer editing sessions a lot. Another common error we came across was either lack of punctuation or incorrect punctuation. Many'a time my editors had to break my paragraph long sentences into multiple sentences or switch a comma or two to a semicolon to keep the meaning clear.

[thealisonbailey.livejournal.com]

I always considered it as you "proof" for readability. You ask yourself, "Can the reader understand what I'm saying?" and fix any errors you find along the way. Then you "rewrite" to sharpen and clarify your ideas, basically make your proof better. "Editing," then, is like proofing... only done by someone better at catching my grammatical errors than me. Haha.

In my experience, editing is like hardcore proofing. I can ask someone to proofread a paper and they hand it back to me in five minutes saying, "Yeah, I understand." I ask someone to edit a paper and it could take an hour or so. Because you're not looking so much at the content, but the mechanics. It's more thorough.

[spurious-sanity.livejournal.com]

thank you. <3 encouragement is appreciated. And needed. <3

*tries to get back to writing her boysmexing* they're being terribly stubborn. Not a single thing has gone as planned.

Re: tap tap tap

[niravive.livejournal.com]

Which is awesome. Support the local (as in: on earth) author! XD XD

[animeartistjo.livejournal.com]

No need--you gave me a LOT of ebooks the first time. I figured that anymore I get I should forward as a small repayment. I still haven't finished reading half of what you sent! XD

Plus, I figured you could use a treat after a series of unfortunate events in your rl. <3

Re: tap tap tap

[charisstoma.livejournal.com]

Don't apologize, you've been turning out storys. I've been to a number of 'the author comes to talk to students about what it's like to get a children's picture book published' visits. It doesn't happen fast. There's a lot of time and work involved.
It's just that I love DwtD so much and want to possess it. And like I said, I've been REEEEEEEEEALY good this year and Christmas is a coming.

[mokushi-saiki.livejournal.com]

thank you for this advice! i'm not doing NaNo (i don't think my writing is very good and my brain is a little scattered from recent events) but this is great advice for writing in general. thankyouthankyouthankyou!