How I got unstuck

Last week I blogged about how I felt stuck on the revision of my novella. I am happy to say that I got unstuck and finished the second draft over the weekend. (Woot!) The way that I got from stuck to unstuck was unexpected.

I wrote a creative non-fiction piece last week called "Shiva the Destroyer," which was a meditation of sorts on life changes. In it, I wrote:

Stuuuuuuuck!

As part of a creative non-fiction class I took during Spring term, I was required to write every day, revise at least two pages a week, and write and revise some longer pieces. I learned at least a couple important things about myself through this experience:

1. I am not afraid to "kill my darlings," as the saying goes. Which is to say that I can look at a piece objectively, see what's not working well for it, and take those parts out, even if I really like them.
2. Much harder for me is to add to a piece. Even when I have ideas about what to add, even when I recognize the imperfections in a piece, I face a fear that adding things will dilute what's already there or will change its meaning in a way I don't want or will otherwise just make the piece worse than it was before.

Cool tool for writers: Scrivener

It seems like every writer has their preferred tool. Maybe it's a particular kind of pen. Or a certain kind of paper. Or maybe, like David Sedaris, you prefer to use a typewriter.

But regardless of how you get yourself going, in this day and age you're eventually going to have to get it into an electronic format of some kind. Even Sedaris, who has written at some length about his aversion to computers, seems to have relented and joined the ranks of the computered...unless someone else does his Facebooking for him, which is quite possible. But I digress.

When it comes to putting our work on the computer, our only option for decades has been word processing software: Microsoft Word, Pages, Open Office Writer, etc. But now there is something different: Scrivener. And friends, let me tell you, it is a beautiful thing.

Every writer needs an editor

I am no exception. Last week I finished a draft of a novella. By the time I was done writing and had gone back to edit for consistency, I could no longer see what I'd written. I was too familiar with the characters and story, too familiar with what I wanted to say; I saw my intentions rather than what was actually there...and what wasn't.

I needed feedback on what made sense and what didn't. Where people lost interest and where they were swept along. What was eye-rollingly cheesy and what was beautiful and original. I needed help identifying the aspects of the manuscript that were falling short of my vision, and I needed help figuring out how I could strengthen them. I needed readers, and I needed editors.