Finding The Words

I have received a lot of advice from other writers, editors, and agents.  The best came in the form of: “A good writer will write millions of words before they write anything good.”  If you have published the first story you’ve ever written, you are very lucky.

If you write a novel or short story and it’s rejected everywhere, put it in your archives and work on another project.  Do it again.  And again.  And again.  Eventually, you will hone your writing ability so that you will find the words that people want to read without cringing or seeing a huge need for you to take a few technical writing classes to clean up the mess.

Now, just because you’ve put the first ones away doesn’t mean you can’t ever publish them.  Wait until you have improved enough to look at them again.  Try giving yourself two or three years.  You’ll cringe.  Then, if you’re not too horrified, you can fix them.  I have rewritten almost all of my original works and found myself pleased with the result.  Two years later, I’m rewriting them again to incorporate the change in my writing style and the new tricks I’ve learned.  It’s a process.

Rewriting a work is difficult, though.  No matter how proud you are of it despite the flaws, your pride may resist the changes needed.  You’ll judge yourself harshly.  You may even want to give up entirely.  In most cases, I found it easier to take the character’s names, plot, and location details down on a slip of paper.  Then I take out a fresh bit of paper or open a new word processing file and go from there.

It’s much better to abandon a project than to work on it for years and have it go nowhere.  I’m not saying you should put aside difficult work.  If you want to see yourself published, you need to face reality.  If your plot is so insane no one can read it and believe or understand it, put it aside and work on another idea.  If your writer’s block is so bad you fix a drink and stare at the manuscript, it’s time to move on.  One day you may find the fix.  Take a long hard look at what your problem is.  Face reality.

Another problem I found is many authors see these (currently) failed manuscripts as albatrosses.  Fighting with yourself over it is a waste of time and energy and causes needless guilt.  Have faith there is a way to make the idea work.  You just may not be at the point in your life to put the idea onto paper how you want.  So put it aside to discover later.

I have many manuscripts sitting around in various stages of development.  I know I will pick them up one day, but right now the other projects I am working on are more important to finish first.  Learn to prioritize.  It helps save a lot of time, worry, and frustration.