Writer's Fallout Shelter

I just write. I haven't been able to free myself of that little niggling editor voice that has me backspace to fix Priestess when I wrote Preistess or minor errors like that but most of the time, when I sit to write, I'm just writing. At the end of my time I use Microsoft word to run an eye over the major errors, the ones with the red scribbles underneath that even Microsoft knows is wrong and I fix those. Then I save it.

I read it the next writing session and force myself to ignore the niggling editor voice that points out errors or wants me to tighten things up or says that's just plain wrong. I ignore him and just read the scene/chapter/pages so that when I reach the end I'm prepared with foreknowledge of exactly where I left off the night before and can write on. I think the practice of having to ignore that voice and NOT fix things is doing wonders for my flow. It's like saying, "Thank you for pointing that error out to me but it's time to write now, I'll fix it later."

Having said that, when later comes and I look at my first draft with plans to go into a second draft I feel an overwhelming sense of, "OMG This is TERRIBLE!!!" *chuckles* Not sure how to deal with that yet. I'm just hoping that the more drafts I write and rewrite and rewrite and rewrite and edit and edit and edit will eventually get better and end in a result that I like. But to get there I have to get through the first draft. If I edited as I wrote it would take me years to write the 75,000 words of the first draft. If I write without editing I have 75,000 words to work with after a couple of months.

As for how-to? The first is to practice. Starting to hate that word yet? But it's true, practice, practice and practice some more.

I've also found acknowledging the critique but not acting on his advice helps. Don't feel strange talking to your inner voices, writers do that.

I also read back my chapter, PUBLISHED! I have a hidden/private campfire item on WDC and each night when I've written my session I post it to the campfire. I'm the only member of the campfire so it's automatically my turn again after that but when I read back the words are there, stuck on the page, I can't change them. I mean I can, if I load it up from my file but I deliberately don't read it from my Word file so that I physically CAN'T fix things as I'm reading.

Some writing books I've read have suggested writing in longhand. There is only so much 'fixing' you can do on a longhand notebook before you're making the lot unreadable.

And finally practice. Practice on your non-specific projects. Practice with a journal, practice with free-writing, practice scribbling, practice making a mess, practice writing gibberish, practice being silly with your writing. Practice writing badly! It's wonderfully freeing to give yourself permission to be terrible.

Have fun and keep writing,
Yours truly,
Rebecca Laffar-Smith