GOOD WRITING IS REWRITING
I've been slaving away in front of the computer, writing and rewriting. Good writing is rewriting, some famous author said. It's getting it down on paper, and then tweaking, and fixing, and deleting, and adding, and...you get the picture.
Ernest Hemingway was said to have worked all day just to get one word right. Well, I'm no Hemingway, of course, but I'm a hard worker trying to make her writing the best it can be.
This story has been the hardest I have ever written, and I've written lots. Ten titles, plus lots more unpublished as of yet. I haven't been able to get this story right. I've started it a gillion times. I've gotten editorial input, and agent input, and husband input (asked for, not dictated). I'm a striver of excellence and want this story to be...wonderful, heart-gripping, challenging, life-changing...
Thank the Lord for computers, where you can cut out chunks of paragraphs or pages and insert them in other places. Like all writers, I do that a lot. For certain segments, I also use The Scissors-and-Tape Method. I print out the pages in hard copy, lay them on my kitchen table or counters, and go to work. I study and labor and pore over my words, and then I start snipping. I snip out sections and tape them to other parts of the story. I work and work to get it just right. Then I tape the pages along the edges of my bookshelves by my computer and start cutting and pasting via computer.
Lord, guide my hands and my heart as I write this story of grace. Amen.
posted by Kristy Dykes @ 6:06 AM
6 comments
6 Comments:
Kristy,
Good luck in your current project. You have my sympathy. Jim Bell says, "Get it down, then get it right." And the "getting it right" is hard.
Glad to see that I'm not the only person who uses the snip-it-tape-it method of revisions. The majority of my professional papers in medicine were written that way, even after I mastered the computer.
Hope your mind isn't still in PR. Makes it hard to write when there's that disconnect.
Thanks for your comments, Dr. Richard. No, my mind isn't in PR. Did I go to PR recently? Grin. Seems like months ago instead of weeks. My life is very busy. Currently, I'm helping clean/paint/repair a 1930s church-owned bungalow so we can get it rented again. And I'm putting on a ladies' afternoon tea. And...
Oh, and I'm writing. And I'm grateful for all I "get" to do for the Lord. He is good!
Kristy,
My, what a clean office and desk you have. I'm loving your blog.
Thanks, Teresa, for your kind comments. Glad you've found my blog and are reading it. I pray it will be a blessing to you, in the ways the Lord ordains.
From one fellow writer to another. I wish you the Lord's best!
Thank you, Tiffany! I wish the same to you, too.
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