Dumping My Deathless Prose
Oh good grief! How often do I have to learn this lesson?
I’ve been having huge trouble with a chapter in a ghostwriting chapter. This has been going on for days. I’ve re-listened to the DVD the author sent, read the offending chapter multiple times and simply couldn’t see what was wrong. I even put it away for several days. Finally, just a few moments ago, I realized that I had to delete a whole section of my wonderful, deathless prose. There wasn’t anything wrong with the writing - it would have been easier if there had been. In fact, the writing made sense and read well, which, it turned out was simply getting in my way.
I don’t have any idea why I saw the section as the problem today, and not yesterday, or last week. But finally, thank goodness, I did. The section is gone, deleted, not even saved for later. And the chapter is flowing smoothly.
What do you do when you get stuck on a particular piece of writing?
Write well and often,
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7 opinions for Dumping My Deathless Prose
Shannon
Mar 18, 2008 at 10:58 am
It’s hard for me to get into the self editing myself. I can’t say that I’m good at dumping just trying to make each paragraph better and better and then realizing that I can also make it better by deleting sentences I just spend ten minutes working on.
Sigh, somehow it all seems to work out in the end though :)
KathleenL
Mar 18, 2008 at 12:33 pm
Anne,
I do the same things that you do. I read, re-read, put it away for days, run it though my head for what seems to be forever. And then there are times when… taking it all out works out for the best, just like it did for you.
John Clausen
Mar 18, 2008 at 6:10 pm
I’m sure I’m not the first one to come up with this, but I call the process “killing your darlings.” If there’s a good line or phrase that I think is really, really clever or insightful, there’s a very good chance it’s a “darling” in need of killing.
Anne Wayman
Mar 19, 2008 at 7:41 am
I don’t think I’d every heard the saying “killing your darlings.” Good way to say it.
Rachel
Mar 19, 2008 at 11:01 am
I pose myself the following question: “Which directive from an editor would p*ss me off the most?”
Laurel
Mar 19, 2008 at 2:30 pm
There is something really liberating about deleting words and sentences that aren’t necessary. I’ve really grown to love it, but I still have a hard time getting there sometimes. I always seem to get my best ideas when I’m not at my computer, so I try to have a notebook or post-it note handy!
Anne Wayman
Mar 20, 2008 at 6:42 am
lol, Rachel… good one.
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