A monumental task
Now the rough, rough draft of my novel is finished I am faced with a situation I never faced before. What do I do with it?
Rather than stumble blindly ahead I often find myself trying to research others experiences and opinions of situations. I keep coming up with published authors who suggest treating the creative part of my brain like a muscle, exercising it every day through writing. This makes sense. The problem is how does one do that in terms of edits and re-writes? Do I take the Don Draper approach to creativity and throw what I have out, focus on something else and let the creativity bubble up as he advised Peggy Campbell in season 2 of Mad Men? If the initial idea is meant to be my subconscious will light the fire the propels me forward? Or do I hash and rehash what I have written until satisfaction is achieved? And if so, how do I do so, tracking changes and wording so I don’t turn the plot into contradictory mess with errant changes left in or long forgotten?
Then there also suggestions such as throwing out distractions, like television, and reading a book daily to help keep the fires of creativity stoked. All good, for a person whose job it is to solely write. My issue becomes one of balance. Sigh.
More than anything though, with the reading and the monumental novel monster before me is not running into my old foes of avoidance and analysis paralysis where I consider my approach ad nauseum without taking the action.
If there is anyone out there with words of encouragement or advice, I am receptive.
No advice as I wouldn’t even know where to begin, except that sometimes when something is particularly troubling to your brain, maybe you should let it rest and walk away for a minute…unless you’ve already done that, then I got nothin’.
Except to say kudos on finishing even a rough rough draft. That is much more than most people will ever accomplish. Keep the faith and you’ll get there.
Kerstin
December 4, 2009 at 7:37 pm
Thanks for the words of encouragement Kerstin, and finding this blog. Right now I’m mostly procrastinating in terms of going back and doing what needs to be done. We’ll see.
Brian
December 6, 2009 at 9:42 pm
Just want to second Kerstin in even stronger terms: best thing to do after completing such a work is WALK AWAY FROM IT. Give the project at least a few weeks, if not a month or more, to become something That Other You wrote… so that a more Objective Current You can look at it, later. In the meantime, busy yourself with journal or other projects if you want to keep the muscle in shape – but trust me on this: don’t go near that draft until you’ve had a chance to disengage on every level. And then, when you do go back, have s few people you trust take a look at it (if possible) and then set yourself a few very specific tasks in the first revision, instead of trying to do everything at once. Best of luck…
mernitman
December 7, 2009 at 12:07 pm
Thanks for the advice…this makes a lot of sense. Writing was so intense that blind ownership was definitely a problem.
Brian
December 7, 2009 at 12:44 pm