Saturday, November 14, 2009

Please forgive me

I know what I said earlier, but I'm sorry. I broke one of my own rules earlier today, and I feel horrible about it.

OK, so I don't feel horrible, but I figured I'd better come clean in my blog, since you know how a little white lie can fester into a gaping wound. Besides, I love the readers of my blog, and I want complete honesty with you wonderful folks.

Whew. Here goes:
While writing in my National Novel Writing Month work in progress today, I ran into a road block. I didn't know how to get around a particular part without scrapping some stuff. So I caved. I don't like to admit it, and I feel dirty, but I did some editing on the fly.

I know what I said earlier. Just hammer out the words as they come and worry about editing after the draft is done. But I couldn't avoid it. I won't blame you for thinking that I'm a horrible person, but it was just one lapse in judgement, I swear. The edits opened the floodgates to about 1,500 words in roughly 45 minutes, but that's no excuse.

All this proves is that there are moments of weakness in all of us, and sometimes the rules get bent slightly or broken. I'm only human, it's going to happen once in awhile. So I'm sorry.

I promise, it will never happen again. Unless it's absolutely necessary for the creative process.

3 comments:

  1. hahaha I think everyone slips at times... and sometimes it even ends up being beneficial (as it was for you)!

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  2. Ha! I also stop to edit, especially because I have a compulsive need to reread what I'd written the day before. It's a curse, but what can you do? The thing is, I think when you stumble into a writing brick wall, what else can you do but reread and edit to discover what's hindering you? I'm not surprised the edits helped you out--indeed, I'm glad they helped you move forward. So, keep on as you have been, and we won't tell if you want to stop and edit when necessary.

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  3. I don't think you'd call that editing as such. If you find yourself stuck it's most likely because something you've written has created the blockage and the story can't move on. Going back to when it was flowing and cutting (and pasting somewhere else, don't delete, you might need it later!) so you can start again from there is just getting yourself going again - not editing.
    Well, I'd testify to that for you, anyway.
    Good luck!

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