"Finn and I left Cryptic Stadium together and went home. We were met by (spoilers here, sorry). That was sure annoying. And then we went home."
That's pathetic. Absolutely pathetic. The entire chapter was like that. I ended up deleting post of it, cringing the entire time.
That's pathetic. Absolutely pathetic. The entire chapter was like that. I ended up deleting post of it, cringing the entire time.
I think rewriting these parts of my novel are some of the most embarrassing things I have done in my writing career. I thought I was a terrible writer for writing as bad as that.
Author Nadine Brandes, my fellow writing buddy, gave me some fantastic encouragement last night. She told me that every writer's first draft is terrible. Even hers. Now, you must understand that her writing is amazing. If you don't believe me, you can go read the first chapter of her book, A Time to Die right here.
Now that we have established that Nadine is a fantastic writer, we can move on in the story. So I always knew that every writer's first draft is messy and very rough, but I still didn't completely believe it. I mean, how could an amazing author have badly written parts in their rough draft? It is so perfect when it's published. Great authors are perfect writers.
Let me free you of something right now. THAT IS A LIE.
So, sometimes, my writing looks like it was written by a 2-year-old. Sometimes yours does too. It doesn't make you a bad writer. It is all part of the process!
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Do you ever feel like you are a bad writer because of something you wrote?
Hi, Alea, I can totally commiserate! I recently had to delete the first third of the draft of book 2 in the series I'm writing and completely start from scratch. The new beginning, while better, is still first draft material and still needs vast amounts of revising.
ReplyDeleteBut, perhaps, it's a good thing the writing process is like that. When we finish a book, especially when that book is published and good review start coming in, it is easy to get too wrapped up in our own words (dare we say it, our own genius) that we forget we are fallible. Starting over with the new draft, horrible and messy as it is, reminds us that each draft only comes together through buckets of tears and sweat and forces us to get down on our knees and beg God for the words and the strength to put them on paper. The struggles keep us humble.
Oh my! That's a lot to delete. I always hate doing that. Good luck in up your writing endeavors!
DeleteIt is humbling to edit a book and make it better. :)
I totally agree. ;) EVERYONE writes sucky things at times. Although the more you write the less sucky those first drafts get too. *nods* And all the traditionally published books you see...don't forget they have like TONS of professional editors and people behind them helping get the book perfect too, so it's not 100% up to the author to make things absolutely tight and shiny. BUT YES. First draft editing can be sooooo hard when things suck a lot. I often just delete whole chapters because I'm like "Did I write this with my elbow, omg, this is awful". xDXD
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by @ Paper Fury!
That's what I'm learning... :)
DeleteYou're welcome! I love your blog!
My first drafts are pretty terrible too. You may have parts where you're like, "Hey, this is pretty good!" but other parts just make you cringe. I never focus on writing a good first draft, only on getting the story written. I know I can always fix it later.
ReplyDeleteI do the same thing. :)
DeleteHaha, I totally feel you! My first drafts are generally horrible, as are my second drafts, and sometimes even third drafts. But (unfortunately) we just can't find perfection the first time around. We find perfection in the process. :)
ReplyDeleteAlexa
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