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Why I (re)Write
Junot Diaz had such an amazingly inspiring article on Becoming a Writer the other day. My favorite quote:
. . . in my view a writer is a writer not because she writes well and easily, because she has amazing talent, because everything she does is golden. In my view a writer is a writer because even when there is no hope, even when nothing you do shows any sign of promise, you keep writing anyway.
Reading that, I was reminded of another of my favorite quotes on writing, this one from Ernest Hemingway: “And then I remember, it was always this hard.”
These are the kind of quotes I read often when, as now, I’m deep in drafting country. And does it help? It does. Does it keep me from periodically wanting to smack my head against the keyboard a la Rolf the dog in the Muppets? Hmm, yeah, not so much.
The thing is, writing a first draft is really, really hard, because inevitably–at least for me–that first draft is depressingly awful. So I rewrite. And rewrite. Which is hard work, but I like it, I really do. But then somewhere about the fifth rewrite I reach a draft that is . . . not bad. It’s not great, mind you, but neither would I die of embarrassment if someone else were to read it. It’s kind of mediocre, but it gets the job done. And that’s when the Rolf the dog impulse really sets in. Because I can see that the draft just isn’t there yet, but I don’t know what’s wrong or how to fix it. And I’m beginning to get so sick of it that I would rather eat slugs, pretty much, that go over it all yet again.
So what do I do? Here’s something else I look at a lot when I’m in the middle of drafting:
If I accept that mediocre draft as final, I’m teaching my girls that compromising your innermost self is okay. That when a job gets hard it’s okay to demand less of yourself than your best work. That cannot happen. Cannot. My amazing girls deserve better than that.
5 drafts down, 495 to go.
This entry was posted Sunday, November 22nd, 2009 at 1:57 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
4 Responses to “Why I (re)Write”
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November 22nd, 2009 at 3:15 pm
Your girls are so cute!
November 22nd, 2009 at 3:31 pm
Thanks for this. I am NaNoWriMo-ing and have hit the wall at 35,000 words, which is 15,000 words short of where I need that wall to be. Ouch. These quotes and your post have given me hope. Back to writing.
November 22nd, 2009 at 10:44 pm
Give Bells my love
November 28th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
Adorable pic!! I hope the girls are doing great and you have all adjusted to your new home and the bigger family!
If I ever get the inspiration to begin my own novel, I fear I will also be one that rewrites..and rewrites.. because even my blog posts become that way sometimes!!