I believe writing is a process, which means that, over the years, I've learned to be open to inspiration whenever it comes, that I free write, have discovery drafts, and revise my writing over and over until it shapes itself into what it needs to be, whether or not it's what I envisioned or not.
My creative writing teacher used to say "words are meant to be wasted" meaning that it's okay if you don't say what you want to say the way you want to say it the first time. There are thousands of words! So, don't be afraid of trial and error or playing around. You won't know what works until you see what isn't working. I believe in this process, but that doesn't mean it makes it any easier to revise what I wrote. I like pretty words (or words clumped together in an effective way), and even though I know it's okay to say something badly before I say it well, I always feel like whatever I got on the page is somehow a part of me. I'm a slow drafter, so getting any words on the page takes a lot of energy. Sometimes, then, it takes a bit of coaxing to get myself to rewrite. A few years back, though, I perfected a trick I learned from a fellow writer. I call it the "experiment doc." It's a trick I've grown in confidence so much that I now share it with college students as I coach them through their academic essays. The concept is simple. Let's say you have a piece of writing you know you need to rewrite or revise, but you're having a hard time giving up the words that you worked so hard to get onto the page in the first place. Here's what you do: put that piece of writing in a separate document. Save it as the experiment doc, if you wish, because that's what it is! Now, try something crazy. Flip the ideas on their head. Cut a paragraph or two or three. Do as many changes as you possibly can, but know that you can always go back to the original because this is the experiment doc. You don't have to keep it if you don't like it. But you know what I've found? The experiment doc is almost always a better version than the original I had. Why? Because I stop worrying about it having to be perfect. It's just an experiment. It might not work, and that's okay! Having an experiment doc reminds me to put "play" back into drafting, which is really important to me because it's in the play, the trial and error, that I find what works. Huh. That's pretty much true about my life, too.
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