When you feel the text is just right. Yes, but how do you know that? Is it not possible to spoil a perfectly good text by editing too much? Can we really judge our own works fairly?
When you feel the text is just right. Yes, but how do you know that? Is it not possible to spoil a perfectly good text by editing too much? Can we really judge our own works fairly?
I wish I knew the answer to that one... I did 100 pages of Jacob Jones just to bin the lot and start over.
It’s funny when we read other peoples work, we think how nice but when we get back to what we have open on the lap top we start to chip away at it.
No I don't think one can judge one's own work. I hate every thing I do just to love it and then hate it again.
I've been writing my six book series for six years. The first book has been finished every year and then rewritten. There are two last little niggling things wrong with it and then I believe it has been tweaked as much as I can tweak it. I would even say I ruined it four years back and put it right again. I suppose that is one of the mistakes of the novice, along with writing before you can write.
What I mean by that is I remember thinking as I excitedly wrote those first chapters that they would have to change several times as I grew as a writer and understood my mistakes. I worried my style would change and everything would have to be rewritten. It did and it was over and over until I developed a natural voice for the project which I hope now remains constant across the series. It's taken six years to reach this point.
Can you think of any other career you study hard at for six years that still earns you absolutely nothing? Needless to say my kids aren't allowed to write stories!
I have seen your comment about editing and I found it very useful, so thank you for that David. The problem is that I don't know if I'm not over doing it. I have written a text this morning in a frenzy - later I started editing, but I did not like where it was going so I stopped. If I wait for a while, I'm afraid I will start working on something else and lose interest. And I don't like to leave things unfinished. On the other hand, I don't know if I will ever be able to say about a text that I've written that it's completed.