Perfect

[vaneramos]

It worked. I got out of bed at 6:05. By the time I went to the bathroom, fixed some breakfast, set myself up with some yarn to knit another square and sat in front of the light box for 20 minutes, it was 7:00. So then I still had quite a lot of writing to do, and time did not quite feel the luxury I had hoped for.

The writing I did was not new. I wanted to start at the beginning again, and revised some opening paragraphs scribed a few weeks ago. I wanted it to be polished, finished, perfect.

The purpose of the 200 words is to get my imagination working every day, and referring to old material does not help.

But still, I wrote 224 words, so my plan succeeded.

Tomorrow morning I will take that same overworked passage and add 200 more new words. This time I will try to write whatever comes to mind.

Comments

[artricia.livejournal.com]

That's great!

[bellakara.livejournal.com]

I'm quite bad for trying to get things polished, particularly when I know later on there's a chance I might decide it doesn't even belong in the story. Still, it's not a bad idea to go back and look at stuff written a few weeks ago, with a fresh eye, and you got your two hundred words plus done.

[bellakara.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I meant to post that as a comment and not as a reply to someone else!

[ghostsandrobots.livejournal.com]

You executed the plan.

You rule Van. :)

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

:-)

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, I didn't mention that part of my plan! Starting in a couple weeks, I want to set aside a couple hours on Thursday evenings (which I normally have free of any other commitments) to review, revise and assemble stuff into chapters.

So there is no reason for me to worry about polishing stuff now, but I keep doing it. What irks me is I am not normally so anal about anything, even my writing. Yes, I am good at self-editing, but this is not self-editing, it is a simple inability to move on. I have been stuck rewriting and rewriting the first few paragraphs of this novel for two or three years.

I believe a daily writing practice will help get ideas flowing. I am just as concerned about receptivity as productivity. I need to relax and not expect the 200 words to be literature. On the other hand I don't expect that relaxation to come immediately.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Making myself wait in anticipation a few days was quite effective. Now I just hope it continues to work tomorrow!