How do you give yourself permission to write crap?

Soccer Mom said:

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.

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Definitely this.

I often find what I felt was arsewater of the finest grade when I was writing it turns out to be merely in need of a tweak / cut down a bit / padded out a bit when I go back to it later. I also find out the longer I leave it to mellow in my box file (ahhh, my box file... love my box file!), the better disposed I am to it, kind of like a rather tart red wine that needs to breathe a bit before it is palatable. That's not to say the first draft is Dickensian genius of the highest order when I go back... it's just that is wasn't quite the hideous beast I was convinced it was when I first wrote it.

I have recently become a devotee of the CAPSLOCK REMINDER. It really has saved my sanity on more than one level.

(I have officially made that certificate my wallpaper now. Each time I flounder, I am going to look at it and remind myself that Uncle Jim says it's okay!)

I got through last year's NaNoWriMo mostly by going to a lot of write-in's (buying a netbook and a "Space Saver" Model M keyboard helped with this). It was the third time I'd attempted it, and the first time I'd ever been to write-in's. Maybe I've programmed myself to only write when I'm around others and drinking expensive coffee, but whatever. Maybe the "No Plot, No Problem" book helped, but I had read it two years before and didn't make it past maybe five thousand words the first two years.

I now have a steaming (all puns intended - for one, it's steampunk-like) 50,000 word MS, an incomplete novel-shaped file I don't know quite what to do with.

If a scene's giving me trouble, I write a note to myself about everything the scene needs and what it has to accomplish in blue and sometimes with extra caps. If I'm unsure about a word, I highlight it in red. If I need to remember something for use later in the MS, I jot it in bolded blue one page below the bottom of the document. I do the same with any new ideas that I'll need to work in. If I have trouble with a name, I write in all caps "CASHIER" or "COACH" or even "MC".

Other than that, I just write. I have the same experience some of the others have shared; how I feel about the writing at the moment doesn't necessarily reflect the quality of the writing. I try to remember that when I feel like I'm writing crap.

The big deal is, get the words on the computer. You're going to have to edit later--there's no getting around that--but you can't edit what isn't there.

Celia Cyanide said:

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.

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Do you have trouble finishing the book if you go back and edit? If not, then why stop yourself?

If you find yourself tinkering endlessly with the first chapter and never writing forward, then perhaps it's worth following this "keep writing never edit" advice. But if you find that editing does not stop you from continuing on the story, then there is absolutely no reason to rule out editing until you have a complete first draft.

I edit as I go along. Each time I pick the story up again I usually re-read at least the page/chapter and tweak. If I'm particularly stuck with the story, I will put it down for a little while, then edit all the way from chapter one - I usually find that this gets me interested in the story again, and by the time I've reached my stuck point, I know what I need to do to go forward.

Experiment with different balances, find the one which works best for you.

Just stop writing crap.

I know that sounds a bit simple, but hear me out.

If, as you write, you know something isn't working, look at why it isn't working and write to fix it. You'll find that the more attention you pay to how things work, the less you'll write things that don't, and over time, you'll write less crap.

In the meantime, reread through what you have written and really look at why it's 'crap', make lists is you want. But just note why and how you would do it differently next time.

I don't give myself permission to write crap. If I wanted to write crap, I'd work for the National Inquirer.

I give myself permission to write the best sentences and the best story possible.

Clearly, some people confuse 'permission' to write crap with 'compulsion'.

I write red notes between square brackets [like this] near bad sections so I feel like I've adequately marked where the worst spots are. Then I keep going.

the first draft is all about getting your story on paper. the labor-intensive edits to perfect it come later

I do 20minute sprints with a group of people online. and post wordcount and shares. We don't care about the smoothness of it, just the story. Rule: Internal editors are left at the door. It works for me.

I think all first drafts are crap. If someone can write a perfect first draft,go ahead,son. That is truly awesome. I can't. I know my first drafts suck hard and not in the good way.

Write the story and worry about the crap later. Shut that editor from hell inside your mind off. Just write and let your story flow. When you are done,then it's time to fix the crap.

If you absolutely must edit while you write,create a file where you make notes of what sucks,etc. Then go back and fix it.

I'm getting a chuckle out of the original post, Celia, because I've been sweating away over a Big Scene over the past few evenings and it's too funny how I come back to it the next morning, and . . . CRAP!

I might rephrase your question. I don't really give myself permission to write crap, but I acknowledge that I'll write some, and then I'll be duty-bound to clean it up.

Finally: For me, rewriting never ends. If I ever get published, I know I'll read my own books with a pencil in my hand to mark up the lousy parts.

I keep telling myself that I can't edit a blank page, and that first drafts are meant to be terrible. On the first go, I just need to get the story out. The good writing comes later.
Momentum is important. If I get jammed on a piece of dialogue, or a description or something like that, I just leave myself a note like SNAPPY DIALOGUE ABOUT BLAH GOES HERE and keep going. Then, when an idea does hit, I can go back and add it in, but I haven't wasted any time stewing over it.

Celia Cyanide said:

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?

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If you want to fix it, fix it, you are allowed to do that.
I can't move on until I have the first chapter right and I often do rolling revisions where I fix the previous days' output before starting anew. If you write sequentially it is quite difficult not to fix things that need to be changed as you go - so I would definitely go back and change a scene to include something I needed later, but I wouldn't spend too much time fiddling with individual sentences. For me plot, character and setting changes need to be made as I write - prose polishing, tightening and general upgrading can wait to the end.

You don’t set out to write crap. You set out to write the very best that you can, but if you decide later that it’s crap, that’s okay. You can fix unwritten crap. Not so what doesn’t exist.

In other words, I pretty much take the James D. Maconald approach, as linked by CaoPaux and further amplified by others. Vonnegut, on the other hand, was a self-described basher. He bashed away at the crap till it was gone, then moved forward.

The point at which I decide something is crap is the key. Deciding that my work is crap before I’ve completed it is almost always ruinous … and disastrously ruinous at that. Deciding that my work is crap after I’ve finished means that I at least have something to work with.

rockette7 said:

If I get jammed on a piece of dialogue, or a description or something like that, I just leave myself a note like SNAPPY DIALOGUE ABOUT BLAH GOES HERE and keep going.

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Ha, that's exactly what I do! I write in MS Word, and I switch the font to red and write my notes. FIX THIS MESS!! or something equally kind and helpful that I'd never do to anyone else.

quicklime said:

you just do. Are you trying to traumatize everyone with your brash delivery?


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.

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Do you even hear what your saying here? If nothing's ever finished the way you put it, you can't ever finish, and no one would publish anytihng. At some point, the edits and rewrites have to stop, otherwise it will never get to press. But it's hard to know that. Maybe you don't have that problem, but some of us do.

You may not mean to sound like a smartass, but you do, and this will not help anyone, and it certainly didn't help me.

That said, you have to understand that while many of us will love, and I mean L-O-V-E love to only have to edit once or twice and send it out, it doesn't always happen that way. That's something you have to accept.

In regards to the OP, all I can tell you is that I know how you feel. Sometimes I think something is done, but no one else I show it to feels the same. Often they suggest I do things I either don't want to do, or honestly can't do.

"I can fix it later" has become my mantra. With practice you learn to push yourself even when you want to go back and fix. The only time I've ever gone back and done heavy rewrites during a first draft is when it was stifling the story. Rewriting was a lot less hassle and aggravation than pushing ahead despite that. But that was a small exception, I typically don't go back and edit until the first draft's done. I've had some really great sections pop up when I'm not sitting there worried about how good it's all coming out.

Still though, you have to find what works for you. I've known some writers who edit as they write and manage to finish just fine. There's nothing wrong with it, so long as it works for you.

KTC said:

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.

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This is me. I always think everything I write needs improvement (a big portion of my AW posts have ETAs--and they're not added thoughts). Hence, I start reading/editing at the beginning of my ms. every time I sit down to write. By the time I get four or five chapters in, it takes me several hours just to get to my first blank page. Such a waste of time and creative juices.

I'm going to do what several others above me on this thread say they do and shrink my window so I can only see a few sentences. That's a GREAT idea.

And, could someone please just compile a Complete Guide to Writing Crap so I can have it at my fingertips? : )

I absolutely cannot give myself to write crap, becasue then I will have to go back and fix it. No, scratch that--I would have to throw it out and start over. I try to write correctly from sentence one, though I may not always be as successful at this as I would like to be.

SusanL said:

I absolutely cannot give myself permission to write crap, because then I will have to go back and fix it. No, scratch that--I would have to throw it out and start over. I try to write correctly from sentence one, though I may not always be as successful at this as I would like to be.

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Bolding mine.

This is why I live by the 'permission to write crap' theory. I don't say, "Go ahead...write the biggest possible load of shitstink you can write!" My interpretation of the saying is to allow myself to propel forward. Forward, forward, forward. I don't look back when I'm writing first draft. It's FIRST DRAFT UGLY. That's what I give myself permission to do---write the first draft without taking two steps forward, one step back. I give myself permission to write crap SO THAT I WON'T GO BACK AND FIX IT. That's the whole idea behind the saying, in my humble opinion.

My favorite quote on this topic is from Nora Roberts: "I can always fix a bad page. I can't fix a blank one."

Allowing myself to write crap (and to be clear, it usually isn't crap in reality) ensures that I have something to fix.

So those people who refuse to write crap because they'd have to go back and fix it - I assume you write Golden Prose on the first draft, then?

scarletpeaches said:

So those people who refuse to write crap because they'd have to go back and fix it - I assume you write Golden Prose on the first draft, then?

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When it's fresh? Yes.

It may be stale when I go back and look at it after it's had time to go bad. That's what editing and revising's for after all.

But at the time of writing, I have to at least be satisfied with it in order to move forward.