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Then and now

Hypnotic ClockJake from Philadel­phia, PA asks: “You’ve been writ­ing for a long time. What’s the dif­fer­ence between the way you used to write and the way you write now?”

One might think a lot of expe­ri­ence, and yes, suc­cess, would make my writ­ing come eas­i­er. Actu­al­ly it’s that expe­ri­ence and suc­cess which makes it harder.

That puz­zled me for a while until I could fig­ure out why.

As far as I know, nobody writes any­thing very well the first time. That said, when you are a young writer you tend to think rather high­ly of your first work. Per­fect­ly under­stand­able, except it’s usu­al­ly not the case. Indeed, I often tell young writ­ers that if they write some­thing, and they think it’s good, they are in trou­ble. It’s much bet­ter to real­ize that what you have writ­ten is NOT good, so you can start to revise it.

Thus it is with me: over the years I believe my stan­dards are high­er, my sense of qual­i­ty more demand­ing. Beyond all else I am much more in touch with my intu­itive feel­ing about the qual­i­ty of my first drafts. Thus, when I start, say, a new book, I am painful­ly aware how bad it is. Very dis­cour­ag­ing. Tru­ly dispir­it­ing. I have to remind myself it will take many, many revi­sions to get me into a com­fort zone, where the writ­ing has some value.

What’s the dif­fer­ence between the way I used to write and the way I write now? These days I have to work hard­er to write well.

1 thought on “Then and now”

  1. So much truth!
    (Says the lady who, as an eigh­teen-year-old, tried to get a lit­er­ary agent with a “per­fect” first draft of a young adult nov­el. For­tu­nate­ly I only sent it to one–who kind­ly reject­ed it–and I kept writ­ing. These days I know the glo­ries of revi­sion, revi­sion, revision.)

    Reply

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