writing tips
Our Internal Editor
by Nancy Brandt
One of the reasons that many people talk about writing a book but few people actually finish is the Internal Editor.
This is the little voice in your head that tells you that what you've written is, frankly, garbage.
We all have them, and for some of us, that voice is so loud that we begin to believe what he/she says and we can become blocked because we doubt our ability to even form a single coherent sentence.
It's hard to turn off that voice, especially when you've allowed yourself to listen to it all your life, not only in your writing. Many, if not most, of us are more ready to hear and believe bad stuff about ourselves and our endeavors than good stuff.
We often compare ourselves to others.
For many years, I was very jealous of my best friend. Her husband made more money than mine, they had a nicer house, and she had three lovely children. My husband and I on the other hand were living in a trailer (he was in graduate school) and had only one child because of my medical problems that wouldn't allow us to have any more biologically. I compared my life to hers.
Actually, what I was doing was comparing my whole life to the little bit of hers that I could see. I found out later that their marriage was in trouble and had been for years and that she was jealous of me because my marriage was so strong.
It's the same with writing.
We look at the books we see on the shelves in the bookstore and dream about being able to write like that. In my case, I look at all those stories and think that all the good ones have been taken and I'll never be able to come up with something interesting and new.
If we looked at the authors we love and want to be like, if we could see them as they are struggling over their stories, we might see that they are just like us and that they throw away a good number of either ideas or pages because "they just aren't good enough."
Years ago, I heard a talk by Kathleen Eagle, a well-known author of western romances. She told about how her husband dragged a huge rock from the edge of their lawn to the middle and made a rock garden around it because it reminded her of Grandfather Rock, the main character in a Native American story about a time when stories didn't exist.
A Native American boy found this huge Grandfather Rock and the rock told him a story, which he then related to his people.
Every day, the boy went to the rock to hear another story, and eventually Grandfather Rock told the boy that now it was his turn to create stories for his people.
Kathleen Eagle said that often she goes out to Grandfather Rock in her yard and despairs because she knows that she has no more stories to tell.
I know I've felt that way before, enough times that my husband just looks at me and says, "Yep, I know. You're out of stories. I've heard it before."
When you compare your rough draft with Nora's or Kathleen's or any other writer's published work, yes, I dare say it will fall short. But like comparing apples and hockey pucks, something's going to fall short, depending on your criteria.
Remember that you and your writing is unique and like a sculptor, you may have to dig through the dreck of your first draft to find the diamond of the work.
Let yourself write that dreck, because without it, there will be no diamond, and never compare your dreck to someone else's diamond. If your work were like your favorite author's, then one of you isn't needed.
Practice not listening to that internal editor and let yourself write without worrying about the perfect phrase. Get your story on paper and then let the editor out again. Finish the rough draft, remembering that it is supposed to be rough.
Get your story written! The world is waiting.
Nancy
Brandt is the author of two published works. Her novel,
FABRIC OF FAITH, an Inspirational, was published by Wings
e-Press. ATTACK OF THE QUEEN, published under the name
Honor Cummings, is a Fantasy also published by Wings
e-Press. |
