I accomplished revisions on the first fifty pages of the wip yesterday. Sadly, I lost an entire page to redundant words, etc. But instead of thinking I am not a good writing, I am going to congratulate myself for being such a good reviser.
I read somewhere that haste makes waste and if you write and toss out stories without really digging deep and "finishing" them then you're wasting your time and the editor/agents time. But of course this can also go the opposite way. It would be easy to say the story is never done-and you can polish until you lose the story and/ or your voice.
If you're writing genre fiction you may also hem and haw around and lose the trend momentum for your story. What will you hear? You'll hear..."Oh, that is so over done. Don't you have anything fresh and new?"
My point being that there is a fine line between polishing and taking the finish off.
Exactly! There comes a point when you just gotta let the little devils go and say that's it. I found I get to this point where I start suspecting every word and suddenly the zest has gone out of the sentences because I have over polished it and it reads like a manual!
ReplyDeleteHi Come across you via Marsha's blog.
ReplyDeleteFascinated by writers, especially the new breed so to speak. So many questions.Have self published short stories. No regrets.(There's Nowt so Strange as Folk.)Would love you to glance at my blog. Examples of short stories 25th April. 29th April, 13th May.
Will be back to view your blog. (Have two projects on the go but have more self doubt than you young uns!
Good luck.