"Just Write"

[mark_asphodel]

So I didn't make my goal of having Chapter 13 of "Starchild" out by tonight.  Oh, well... there are a number of personal goals I didn't meet this weekend.  Like buying a new vacuum cleaner.

Part of the problem is that a couple of weeks back, I followed a piece of writing advice that I normally avoid like it's poison.

"Just write.  Don't worry about it being good-- you can edit it later.   Just sit down and write."

Well, I did, and now I have a block of textual crap entitled "Chapter 13"-- or did until I excised that entire block of text like a tumor, dumped it into the slot labeled "Chapter 14" in case I needed to refer to it, and started over.  And since I did try to convince myself I could work with said textual crap, I wasted a lot of time with it.  I guess I could argue that the delay allowed me to refine the sequencing of certain events in Chapters 13 and 14, but I'd like to think I could have gotten there without writing junk text as a self-installed roadblock.

I'm sure that advice has its utility for professionals writing to deadline.  But in the case of someone writing for fun, it has always caused me more harm than good.  

-x-

Also, I did take an Eliwood/Fiora detour, but the junk-text issue was already ongoing when I wrote that.

-x-

Also, the squirrels have raided and feasted upon my carefully-planted canna lilies.  Evil little rodents.

Comments

[mark-asphodel.livejournal.com]

And it's a writer's right to be happy with what they churn out.

Yeah, and mostly I am. I mean, you don't often see me openly frustrated about writing 'fic because it's not something I tend to fret over. Either things are going, or they're not, and if I'm struggling, it's usually because I'm writing "for" something-- a contest or exchange. So this was... an aberration.

A fence won't work with my landscaping, sadly.

[sarajayechan.livejournal.com]

Either things are going, or they're not, and if I'm struggling, it's usually because I'm writing "for" something-- a contest or exchange.

Same here, those are the only times I'll ever "force" myself to write.

Ah. :( Is there anything else you can do?