I Throw Away a Lot of Words
May 19, 1998
5:32 a.m.
I throw away a lot of words. Maybe I should start by saying that I know folks who want to sell every word they write. Are you with me? Seriously? Well . . . the reality for me is that I'm not sure I do want to sell everything. In fact, I'm pretty sure I don't. The problem, you see, is that I still write a lot of bad stuff. Not that there's anything wrong with that. [G] Don't get me wrong. I'm not whining or anything (at least not on purpose!). No "pity me, my stuff is dog meat" here today. I write some pretty good stories. But reality forces me to admit that some of it is still . . . well . . . uh . . . "entertainment challenged." That shouldn't come as a great surprise, though. When I add my experience up, I'm still below my first million words. Which, of course means I'm still practicing. But I know writers who work hard to sell every word they write, and while I understand that intellectually (no laughing, Lisa) I have to admit that I cannot get over the hump inside that cringes at the idea of some of my stuff ever seeing light of day. I'm on this topic today because I'm slowly working my way back into the Europa story. It was 9,000 word story a few days ago, when a few folks kindly took knives to it, and made me see a bit of reality. Gone go the first 14 pages (3,500 words). Can you say "Total Rewrite?" The good news, of course, is that this is fun. This is writing--playing with a story until you get it right. A lot of what I've cut was actually fairly decent stuff (I think). And I could just "mush" it a bit and see what happens. But my brain will work better this time around if it's a clean sheet, I'm sure. And if I run into something that strikes my memory as being perfect for something in this round, I can always go back and get it. If I do the job right, I think my 9,000 word story will end up somewhere in the 6,000 word range. If I don't . . . well, there's always time to do it again. Ain't this a wonderful profession! Have a great day.  Daily Persistence is © Ron Collins |
|
"It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something." Franklin Delano Roosevelt |
BACK TO 
|