nwnb:
I realized this morning that I’m two-thirds of the way through this 30 day OTP challenge. And I have to say, I have learned one hell of a lot doing this. I’m not usually one have too much trouble with my internal editor, but writing and posting an average of 1100 words…
Okay, I want to pitch in, as one of those writers who DO agonize over every word. It definitely does not make me a better writer. Mostly it just makes me fussy. I need to learn to be LESS fussy, in fact, because I’ve found that it really slows me down, cramps my style and, when I get too hung up on things, it frankly takes a lot of the fun out of writing.
Now and then, it’s worth putting the effort in to get that perfect sentence, if it’s right where you need the impact to be. But like Roane says, mostly all you need is ‘it does what I need it to.’ This is what she means about being a storyteller vs. being an intellectual writer—where you’re prioritizing communicating the tale over sculpting your imagery.
You know what happens to me? I’ll work a passage to the point where I’ve sucked all the life out of it and sapped away the potential happy accidents like the ones Roane described, leaving the scene dry and predictable. I can feel what I want to get at, just on the other side of that wall, but I can’t break through, and I’m bored stiff with what I’ve got because I’m sick of looking at it.
At that point, I often just delete the entire thing! I rewrite it from scratch, barely giving a damn because at this point I just want to say what I meant to say, and THEN I find myself getting to what I really wanted out of it in the first place—when I’m NOT trying to craft it perfectly. That’s when the magic happens.
Having a looser, less effort-ridden writing style is a good thing! It means that you’re open to the possibilities. It means that you’re prioritizing the reader, communicating the story to them rather than getting tied up with sounding good. It’s courageous, frankly, because you’re leaving yourself open to both the risks and happy accidents, and it tends to make for richer, more textured writing in the end.
And to be quite honest, 99% of the time, the reader doesn’t care if you got the sentence JUST RIGHT. They just want to know what’s happening.
The BBC Has Ruined My Life: A little more on writing re: the OTP challenge