"I have made this [letter] longer, because I have not had the time to make it shorter."
- Blaise Pascal
Sometimes it's so easy to get carried away with our writing, that we've written three chapters that have nothing to do with the plot. Sometimes our characters take a detour, and we want to see where it leads so we follow, only to get lost down a dead-end street.
But that's okay. That's what drafting is for. We experiment. We explore.
Eventually we have to go back. Edit. Revise. Thus begins the process of shortening. Taking out all the unnecessary stuff. Oh yeah, and adding those most important details that somehow we missed! It takes time. But the end result is so much better.
Thank goodness we have computers. Thank goodness we're not dealing with typewriters or worse, hand writing. (Although I know a few writers who still prefer that method!)
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Today's writing quote was taken from The Write Planner, a day planner designed for writers. To learn more about The Write Planner, click here
2 comments:
Nice quote. I always enjoy the process of revising. Though I do my first draft by hand, I would shudder to think of trying the editing part without the computer!
Great Post. I'm curious about your planner. Could you email me and give me a more detailed break down, like how many pages it has, etc. I'm especially curious about the project sheets, how many of those it includes. I'm usually working on several projects and would want to have one place to record the progress. My email: christine at ckbryant dot com
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