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It reminds me of something I've noticed in my writing. My writing group has been giving me good feedback, but often they point out things I knew before ever submitting the story. Things I knew were weak or downright wrong and did not fix out of laziness.
It sucks to get down on your hands and knees and clean that crevice behind the toilet, but one of these days you just have to man up and do it. I've been avoiding those spots and now it's time to clean them.
I often complain that others hold back or aren't honest when giving reviews. Well, the same should go for me. When editing, we need to be honest with ourselves as well. If you notice that that sentence or scene is weak, so will everyone else. The challenge is not passing over it and leaving it for a second read; the challenge is attacking the weak spots the moment you see them and cleaning them up then and there.
In the spirit of having just cleaned my entire apartment head to toe, I'm going to try to keep that mind set today as I work on editing some more. But first I'm going to take a nap. Cleaning is exhausting.
- Location:home
- Mood:
drained
Comments
I regularly experience exactly what you're saying here. There is sometimes a laziness involved ... knowing something isn't right and not fixing it. And it's odd because I'm not sure it's a matter of not WANTING to fix it, but needing someone else to point it out???
I've recently found that if I write something in a word doc, for example, and it seems okay to me, and then I go to post it on LJ or to a friend, all of the sudden it looks entirely different and I'm fixing things I let go before. That's one reason I'll post rough drafts up here. I go back and look at them in an hour and think ... WHAT is that?!
Excellent advice, though not easy to follow :)
You're absolutely right. I love this.