that I had then. I'm different now, and I write differently. I don't feel that I've gotten worse, or anything like that, I just don't feel that what I wrote then was awful or primitive. I change, I learn, I stay the same.Has this happened to anyone else here?
Part of this is because I went through a major life change sometime between finishing the first draft and now going back to edit.
I feel like I'm telling the same story, better, but still, does everyone hate their first drafts as much as I hate this one?
Actually your doing good if you've finished one time all the way through. What I have written on my main project has been re-written at least 7 times... that is not an exageration either. I also haven't finished it, in fact there are huge holes where I know what I want in them but I've never actually filled them in.
Just a rambling
Thought
[This message has been edited by Thought (edited May 28, 2000).]
When I do a complete rewrite, it's only because I could feel as i wrote something the first time, it was wrong to begin with. Sometimes, I've redone the beginning of stories two or three times to get the feel right, but for the most part, i just don't see a reason to keep turning out the same story over and over, because in my experience, my second time around is never any worse or better than my first. Sometimes, I do see extra little things, though.
I use the edit-as-you go method. Nothing is final, just read it and read it over and over until I see where i need to say more, say less, what to change.. I end up writing a story once, and watching it evolve as it goes, and when it works for me, it's a nice experience.
[This message has been edited by TheUbiquitousMrLovegrove (edited May 26, 2000).]
If you're a good enough writer to bother with a rewrite, then your first draft probably is pretty good. But it's still a first draft...
I look back at things that I wrote years ago and am almost envious of the wit and charm that I had then. I'm different now, and I write differently. I don't feel that I've gotten worse, or anything like that, I just don't feel that what I wrote then was awful or primitive. I change, I learn, I stay the same.
And I love to rewrite a story, particularly one that I love to begin with. I love being a writer. If it's worth reading, it's worth rewriting (although I try to keep that process in my head when dealing with other people's work; no one likes to be a plagiarist). It's just part of what makes us writers. It's not a quest for perfection, it's a search for things to write about.
quote:
I used to be a writer, dammit! Now look at me...
Tell me you never felt that way, looking at a piece that you can remember writing, but can't remember how. Perhaps I just gloss over how much effort I put into it before, but I remember writing it, and it didn't take that long....
Even in doing all the other things in your life, like...driving. Remember when you could handle a hair-pin turn on two wheels at 60 miles an hour? How fast do you take that turn today? Remember when you had passionate feelings, and you actually let yourself feel them? Remember when...
So much is lost to us. We only hold our own by continually advancing, never by trying to hold onto gains made in the past. I admire the writer I was, but I never try to imitate or force myself back to that time. It is gone, and I ought not regret its loss.
You rewrite it, because that is the way to let go of the past and advance. Don't try to be the writer you once were. Be the writer you are now.
I could continue to spout platitudes, but I think that the point is clearly enough expressed. Carry on.
Now, I read it and wonder why I didn't expand on this idea, or tweak that one. I can see lots of ways to improve it that were just invisible to me before.
And, I think, we keep growing and maturing all our lives (unless we just STOP). Having that maturity reflect in our writing is only natural. Taking hairpin turns at 60 mph is great, especially when you don't know what you are doing. It's exciting and stupid and you remember it the rest of your life. And maybe even write "American Graffitti" as a result.
But without the maturity that goes with growing up, I think my writing would be stale pablum. It may still be not GREAT, but at least it has more to it than the unidimensional "cleverness" of my younger stuff.
And that's just me. For every million or so like me, I'm sure there's a Mozart out there who seemingly learned how to do it in the womb. We all have to work with what we got.
Then, there's people like Merlin, who live their lives in reverse. Imagine knowing everything that's going to happen because you already did it yesterday. Would your writing get more youthful and daring as you "aged?"
I now like to go too fast around curves, actually, something that I didn't like to do when I was younger. So I guess maturity is sort of a relative concept. And there's a strong possibility that when I think I can improve a story I've written in the past, I'm really just missing the point. Certainly, I sometimes realize the subtleties of a past work of mine after attempting to rework it.
But when I can rewrite it, I do.
Will.