Disclaimer: I'm not an author nor am I an editor or any kind of expert. I only can share my aspiring adventures with you, but I do hope, it'll help many other aspiring writers and we can go along the road together. :)
Previou posts in the series:
Today, I will be writing about something that is less a tip or advice than some experinence, something that I have been going through lately and wanted to share with you, guys, becasue I believe some of you might make use of it. I hope so at least. :)
No matter what you do, you are improving at it meanwhiele. The more you occupy yourself with it, the more/the faster you improve. And along the road you may see your earlier work lame, perhaps even bad. Have you ever had the feeling like "Was it really me? How could I do that?" Yes? Of course. It's natural. It means you have gotten better at it. However, you could look at it like this;
'That's how I started and since then I have come such a long way!"
I have been caring for writing a lot lately. Reading articles, tips&tricks, seeking out character sheets, taking courses, etc. I'm constantly analyzing what I'm reading, what is awry, what the author could have done better so that I have a better chance not to make the same mistake. (Like this. I mean seriously? Everybody knows the don't-tell-show rule. It's the no. 1 principle of writing, duh.) And at the same time, I'm writing my first draft of my very first WIP. Before the above mentioned articles, I used to think I worked it out pretty well. Not perfectly of course, but fairly enough. However, having learned a few new tricks I have improved, which is the most visible in the fact that now I can clearly see how delusional that was which makes me want to go back and start it all over again.
Then a thought occurred to me. Or rather a traing of thoughts. It's a first draft. It's my first first draft. It shows how much I have gotten better which is important. What's more, I hopefully will continue to improve and in that case if I always rewrite what I have penned to suit my current level, well then I'm never going to get done anything. But if I save up my ideas for my second draft when I can revise and rethink everything, but with all the knowledge and familiarity with the story and characters I have gathered, it can end in something pretty wicked, isn't it?
So what am I going to do? Exactly what I just said; I'm going to get on with the WIP as it is and then look back my progress from the beginning to the end. Meanwhile, I'm having smaller projects such as fan-fictions (I still haven't managed to get over City of Heavenly Fire. Pretty pathetic, but it was a shaking conclusion, now wasn't it?) that will help me put into reality what I learn. After finishing the first draft, I can move on to some brainstorming and a lot more character interviewing and then I'm going to start writing the second draft. It will be a lot of work, but you know what? I can't wait to improve, learn and experience and see the progess I have made.
And what's the point of this little ranting? I only wanted to point out that you should embrace what you created - disregarding if it was in the beginning of your journey and it's a wobbly stickman or it's your debut novel that has just gotten to be no. 1 bestseller. - it's your work and you can always learn from it.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Share your thoughts! ;)