How do you give yourself permission to write crap?

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Celia Cyanide

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I hope my thread title makes sense. How do you keep writing, when all you want to do is go back and "fix" everything you've already written? It's always been hard for me.

How do AWers deal with this?
 

Tasmin21

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I take copious notes. When I write something, and then a day later I think "Oh crud, it would have been so great if I'd have done THIS!", I go back and make a note on my outline.

My first revision round is always going back through to incorporate all the notes I've left myself during the first draft.
 

Maxinquaye

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I can only answer for myself, of course, but for me going back and fixing stuff is a sticky trap. If I start, I'll never stop, because at that stage I'm never confident in my writing. I know I would spend all the time fixing "crap". So, I don't, and it's difficult. If I persevere I'll get the book done, and then when I look at it - with a bit of time - I'll see it's not THAT bad.
 

Bubastes

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If I don't see it, I won't fix it, so I use my Alphasmart Neo for all of my first drafts. I can see only 5 lines at a time, so the story keeps scrolling up and out of sight as I type. Mscelina does a similar trick by shrinking the window on her word processor so she can see only a few lines.

I used to delete entire pages (or entire WIPs!) at a time, so the Neo has done wonders for my productivity. I learned that my first drafts are never as bad as I think they are while I'm writing them, but I had to actually let myself finish a first draft to discover that.
 
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Wayne K

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I do first edits as I continue writing. I can't leave it crap for long--I'm obsessive--so I do that and go back for rewrites later with a better idea of what I was thinking when I wrote it.

When I write crap, I write crap. I'll go back later and have no idea what I wrote sometimes
 
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I tell myself a few things. "You can't edit what you haven't written." - "The only way out is through." - "The published copy of The Remains of the Day which makes you ache so badly you cry is likely not Ishiguro's first draft."

I also hold on to the fact that with previous books, I've pushed through the blahs, made myself get to the end, and when I read over it, I cannot tell which sections were written in the aforementioned blahs, and which while in the zone.

It's likely only your perception of your writing that goes up and down so rapidly, not the quality of writing itself. Quality of writing improves steadily, I think, whereas it's our moods and perceptions which are more mercurial.

I don't intend to write crap. I just tell myself it's okay if I do and, of course, my 'crap' of today is far superior to my 'best' of years back. So your first drafts will improve in quality over time, if you have your wits about you.
 

Wayne K

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I always read and reread looking for douchisms. I let one slip past me that my agent underlined and commented "I'm not in love with this"

I'll lose a chapter to remove one of those
 
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Wayne, just so you know, I used the phrase 'slurping douchecock' in my first published novel because when you said it a couple of years back I pissed myself laughing.
 

Wayne K

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I remember who I said it about, and stand by it

ETA :D
 
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quicklime

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I hope my thread title makes sense. How do you keep writing, when all you want to do is go back and "fix" everything you've already written? It's always been hard for me.

How do AWers deal with this?


you just do.


you can fix everything forever, or you can move ahead. I want to publish, that involves a few important steps, including FINISHING. I'm not being a smartass, but I would guess 3/4 of the self-professed "writers" out there have yet to finish a full manuscript, let alnoe a second or third. You will never finish if you keep editing, so write first, edit later. Granted, some folks pick up the next day by editing yesterdays work, etc., but if you just keep laboring over the revisions, you will never finish anything.

and when it is finished, you will still have edits long after the book has gone to press--fix everything you can, fix a bit more, and send it out. You'll never be staisfied, unless you're delusional, and that's even worse. Nobody does as poorly as someone convinced their entire book is perfect.
 

Wayne K

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Getting back to this thing. I can't stop tinkering with things. I edit as I write.

I get books done so that I only have to edit once. If I could do what you guys do I'd have a lot more books, but I like my obsessive compulsive way of doing it.
 

Mistress Elysia

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I have to admit, I haven't cracked it yet - I wrote a thread the other day about shutting that voice up (I call it my Inner Critic Monster) that keeps on criticising despite the fact that you can't improve if you don't write, so I'm pretty much in the same boat.

I've just been pushing on through - not really enjoying it much, but as the word count racks up and the scenes in my head get onto the page in a roughly coherent manner, it is starting to fall into place. Some days are harder than others: I know it's full of telling rather than showing, I know it's bursting from the seams with adverbs, I know the prose is purpler than a purple people eater... but at least it's being written, dammit!

Once I've finished a chapter I then print it off and scribble all over it, leaving myself notes so that when I go back to edit it, I know what I want to add in. Then I pop it in my box file with the other chapters and slog over the next one.
 

Namatu

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For me it depends on the crap. I have a scene I wrote last year that I hate. I think it's crap. None of my betas said a bad word about it. In fact, they had good things to say. But I still hate it. There's nothing I can put my finger on as to why, so I leave it alone.

The other kind of crap is the sort I'll go back to fix. This is the kind in which something important to the plot or characterization goes wrong. If I don't fix this crap, it will loom in my head like an executioner and I'll find myself stuck going forward until I fix it.

I also utilize a sub-type of crap, which is "just dialogue, get the scene out." I use this when the scene is a big one that's intimidating me (how can I possibly get it right?) or when I'm too impatient/lazy to write all the details.
 

heyjude

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I can't. I go back and edit as I go. It works for me. I write reasonably quickly, and rarely have trouble finishing a project.

Everyone has a way they're comfortable with that works for them.
 

eqb

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I can't. I go back and edit as I go. It works for me. I write reasonably quickly, and rarely have trouble finishing a project.

This is the key.

If a writer can finish projects, it doesn't matter if they write from end-to-end without stopping, or if they edit as they go. The "permission to write crap" is good advice for those who are paralyzed by the inner editor.
 

smcc360

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I look at it as making furniture.

Go look at a lumberyard. All it is is a pile of dead trees lying in the dirt, but there's a whole lot of them.

Later on, a giant saw will slice them into planks. Then an artist will carve those planks into beautiful curves and spans of wood, and fit them together into a piece of finely-crafted furniture classy enough for Paris Hilton herself to pass out drunk on top of. Maybe she'll even dribble a little puke down onto the upholstery.

But the guys out in the woods with the axes and the flannel aren't there to make something that looks good. They're there to put wood on the ground. Somebody else'll pretty it up later.
 

KTC

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I hope my thread title makes sense. How do you keep writing, when all you want to do is go back and "fix" everything you've already written? It's always been hard for me.

How do AWers deal with this?

I don't know how I do it. I think I have such a low opinion of my writing, that I don't ever expect to write anything BUT crap.

I just start at the first word and I don't look back until I write THE END. Never.

I am always confident that what lays behind me is horrible...the forward momentum feels good and right...and as soon as it leaves me, I know it's bad...so I just keep chasing the ending. And then...I finish. I don't really give myself permission to write crap...I just know my place. I know that I DO write crap. But it feels good doing it.
 

Shadow_Ferret

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How do you give yourself permission to write crap?

I have an official looking certificate on the wall that gives me permission to write badly signed by none other than our own Uncle Jim.

The certificate is available here.

That's where my permission comes from.
 

DeleyanLee

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I used to give myself permission to write crap.

Then I'd get to the end of the 400 pages and all I saw was crap. Crap word choices. Crap sentences. Crap characters. Crap plotlines. Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap.

It was so overwhemling that I couldn't bring myself to revise it. It was far too much work. It was far easier to pitch the book en totale and write it over again, hoping that the next pile of crap would be easier to fix.

It never was. I also never learned how to edit and revise because it was just too overwhelming.

So I write a little, edit a little, write a little, edit some more. Yeah, occasionally I still write a crappy scene--but then I turn right around and fix it before piling on any more stinky brown stuff. That way, it's never overwhelming and I get the job done. Editing and revision doesn't seem so impossible anymore.

I can't participate in any kind of writing marathon like NaNo or word wars because when I'm not playing nice with my internal editor (whom I've come to adore, mind you), then I've got piles of crap to wade through. Depressing and counter-productive for me. Works marvy for lots of other people. Just depends on how the process flows, I guess.
 

Soccer Mom

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I find that what often FEELS like crap when I'm writing, isn't crap when I go back to edit. But I use a lot of place holders and such. I leave myself messages in the ms as I write. I simply click the caplock and type ADD DESCRIPTION OF HOUSE EXTERIOR.

I just plow on through.
 

Cranky

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Since I haven't yet figured out a way to give myself permission to write crap in a way that results in an actual, finished piece of work, I'll defer to the experts.

What I *will* say is that like everything else having to do with writing, in the end, you've gotta do what works for you. If that means editing as you go, then do that. If it means spilling it all out and then fixing it later, then do *that*. Whatever ends with you having a finished, polished piece is the way to go. Which is fantastically vague, I know, but there it is. :)
 
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