Rushing to judgement
When I finish working with a coaching student, or teaching a class, I’m quite often asked, what is the one piece of advice I wish writers would remember? ‘Don’t give up’ springs to mind, but much more important, to my mind, is ‘don’t rush to judgement’. It’s the judging, more often than not, that causes the giving up. If only people would finish a piece of work before they start revising it, the world would be a happier place.
Half the writers I coach have got into the habit of revising each page as they finish it – which moves activity from one side of the brain to the other, so creativity is switched off in favour of analysis. When they try to write creatively again, their mind is confused, and by the time they revert to creative thinking, they’ve produced nearly a page of cold analytic prose, which they then stop to edit … it’s no wonder that many writers give up on their work half-way through.
If I could, I would make all writers finish a piece and put it away for six weeks before even thinking about revision. It would stop the preciousness of falling in love with one’s own work, because one wouldn’t be so familiar with it, and it would also prevent the development of this terrible habit of self-critique in the heat of the creative moment.
8 Comments
Sara
6th March 2007I have never thought of that at all, the switching from creative to analytical, and constantly do it. I revise as I go, paragraph after paragraph, and am left with, yup, lots of half finished stories. Thanks for the advice, I will give it a go!
Nik's Blog
6th March 2007Excellent advice, as ever, Kay. I do think that, in the beginning at least, it’s difficult to curb one’s enthusiasm; another thing writers have to learn. It’s not as easy as it looks, is it!
All the best,
Nik.
Sara
6th March 2007I’ve been thinking about this off and on all day. I think the reason that I do edit constantly is because I stop and go over what goes before to lead me back in every now and again, and consequently change things as I notice. I’m going to try to just blast on through.
Tribeless
6th March 2007Damn, lost a post again. Shortened version below.
I often procastinate all through writing a story due to being too scared I will either not write up to the conception of the story in my mind, or that I will ruin what has been written thus far.
Loss of nerve in other words. Is this the same thing? I will tend to go back and edit, edit, as a mechanism for not facing going on.
Kay Sexton
6th March 2007Sara, it’s actually tiring to the brain to do this – I try and get my students to revise work in a different room to the room they write in so that the brain ‘knows’ which part of itself is dominant – just like Pavlov’s dogs, we can train ourselves into (and out of) creative states.
Nik, you’re too kind. And yes, curbing enthusiasm is one the real toughies!
Mark, I think that’s a different process, but the same outcome. I’d say there are two kinds of writer: the ones who are keen to communicate, no matter how poorly or partially they express their inner vision; and those who feel that if they fall short of that inner sense, they’ve failed. This latter is what leads to ‘working over’ rather than moving forward. There’s a couple of techniques to help you move past the fear and I’ll blog them later in the week – if I forget, remind me!
TitaniaWrites
6th March 2007Kay – that is absolutely fascinating. I have never thought about the process of writing and revising that way, as using two different parts of the brain, and how we must ensure not to confuse ourselves. I am very smitten with the idea of doing writing and revising in two different rooms – I may actually even do it on two different computers! I have one computer that I do journalism on and the laptop for fiction, because I have to separate the two fields because they are totally different parts of my brain. Perhaps the revising part of my brain is closer to the journalistic, analytical part of my brain?
Much food for thought, really fascinating, thank you! I look forward to your other tips.
Tania
Vanessa G
7th March 2007It is good advice. It’s so easy to fiddle, and displace yourself from pouring out words.
But something else happens too.
I have to get a character ‘right’ or the story won’t let me go on. I can’t explain it more than that.
If a character has a name, or other characteristics that aren’t ‘right’ it’s like there’s a rope tying me to the opening of the story. I can’t move far.
It’s happened many times. Im not in control, somehow. If I go back and change the name, change a detail or two, the story lets go, feels right and it flows.
I just a candidate for the nuthouse?
vanessa
Kay Sexton
7th March 2007Tania, it’s good to separate the work if you can – two computers sounds ideal!
Vanessa, you’ve obviously got through the avoidance part of not writing, but the bit about getting blocked is a different thing: you’re not editing to avoid writing, but editing to allow writing – if only every writer could understand the distinction as clearly as you do!