Having finished Fight Or Flight about a month ago, I thought about all the things I liked writing it. They turned out to be the same things I liked when I wrote Akeldama, Salvation Day, Wrongful Death, Schism, and Homecoming - they were fruits of the imagination in the most pure form. They spun right out of my head, with nothing holding back the words as they flowed.
It's the completely raw nature of writing a first draft that I enjoy. A tip for all you writers out there - don't try to edit while you write the first draft. Let things go, knowing that you'll have to change them later. However, if you start to interrupt the creative process by editing as you write, you'll turn into the centipede that falls over when it starts thinking about walking. It'll sap much needed energy from just getting it out on paper.
Some of what you write in a first draft will require editing, but that's for another time and after you've had a chance to decompress. Your goal in your first draft has to be getting everything onto paper. Your story is like a lump of clay you have to shape and mold into a grand piece of art, but the first time you shape it isn't the time to take a beveled edge and make it exquisite. Instead, it's the time you form the rough shape of what you hope it'll eventually turn into.
All of my novels have extraneous parts. All have certain scenes that will need to be changed or pieces added to provide tone. However, that's for later. Trying to sculpt a masterpiece on the first go is an exhausting process that takes all the fun out of writing. I'll bet when you got all hyped up to write that first draft, it wasn't because you were excited to have your energy drained.
Just let your creative juices flow freely. Yes, it'll create a mess that you'll have to clean up later, but so what? That's the stage of writing that's the most fun, so why take away from it?
It's the completely raw nature of writing a first draft that I enjoy. A tip for all you writers out there - don't try to edit while you write the first draft. Let things go, knowing that you'll have to change them later. However, if you start to interrupt the creative process by editing as you write, you'll turn into the centipede that falls over when it starts thinking about walking. It'll sap much needed energy from just getting it out on paper.
Some of what you write in a first draft will require editing, but that's for another time and after you've had a chance to decompress. Your goal in your first draft has to be getting everything onto paper. Your story is like a lump of clay you have to shape and mold into a grand piece of art, but the first time you shape it isn't the time to take a beveled edge and make it exquisite. Instead, it's the time you form the rough shape of what you hope it'll eventually turn into.
All of my novels have extraneous parts. All have certain scenes that will need to be changed or pieces added to provide tone. However, that's for later. Trying to sculpt a masterpiece on the first go is an exhausting process that takes all the fun out of writing. I'll bet when you got all hyped up to write that first draft, it wasn't because you were excited to have your energy drained.
Just let your creative juices flow freely. Yes, it'll create a mess that you'll have to clean up later, but so what? That's the stage of writing that's the most fun, so why take away from it?
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