Here’s something I hear regularly at the beginning of any writing group I’m running:
“When I try to write, it all comes out wrong. I can’t do it!”
If that’s how you feel, please take heart. Your frustration is actually an encouraging sign.
I’m currently working on an article. I’m on my seventh or eighth draft now – Ive lost count – and it’s still not right!
Here’s a pic of the mess I’m in with it at the moment.
I’ve been writing professionally for almost thirty years. The result is that I have grown comfortable with producing stuff that disappoints me. Draft after draft after draft.
I often think that writing is like making a dress.
You want the finished article, but first you must weave your cloth. Your first draft is the creation of that fabric, and then you must cut and shape and re-structure, snip and stitch by snip and stitch.
Eventually you have to stop fiddling with it, because a deadline of some sort has inevitably jumped out at you.
Various writers have been attributed with the quote, “A work of art is never finished, only abandoned.” You just have to call it finished when you’re as happy as you’ll ever be with it, and accept the fact that you’ll never really be happy with it at all.
When my short story collection, Blank For Your Own Message, was taken on by Lioness last year, I rewrote the entire thing. Going through each story, I couldn’t believe I’d ever been happy with them – yet those stories had already been through thirty, forty or more drafts each!
Please don’t be downhearted when your writing doesn’t come out perfectly formed first time around. It’s not supposed to.
Just like all art forms, there’s graft in the craft.
When you’re frustrated by your imperfect efforts, think of Picasso. He was a pretty good artist, right? Only, he was once barred from a gallery because he kept visiting, paintbrush in hand, and tweaking his own works! Each time he looked, he saw a way to improve them.
It won’t come right first time. It may not come right the tenth time. But keep going! Stick with it!
The joy of writing is found within the process of creating. When you come back to your finished work, there’s often only frustration, much as Picasso found with his art.
So, draft, laugh, redraft, cry, redraft, make a cup of tea, redraft and revel in your unique gifts and wordy pleasures. No one else can tell your stories, your way.
Photo Credits:
Screwed up paper Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash
Green Fabric Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash
Work in progress photos by Liz Jennings
Great wisdom alongside encouragement, so typical of you Liz. THank you x
Thank YOU! Lx
Essential be as relaxed as possible to allow creativity to flow. Beware being too tired.
Yes Pauline, you are so right. When we take the pressure off ourselves to produce something perfect, it’s possible to relax and enjoy the process – which is the important part!
When I was a newspaper reporter the Boss often worked among a sea of screwed up paper, just like your picture…..maybe 100 balls at a time. I think he gave up journalism to become a Vicar.
Wow Audrey, which paper were you with? I dreamed of becoming a journalist through my teens, and tried it out up in the midlands very, very briefly in the ’90s – only to discover I was too shy to be a reporter! It seems funny to think now, but I was crippled with self-consciousness and found making phone calls and asking people questions in an office full of other people really difficult. They put me on writing up weddings and pre-school openings, and sent me off with the photographer, who was great fun. Most of my memories are of us… Read more »
[…] And remember, good writing never comes easy. If you feel frustrated by your efforts, be encouraged by this blog on the awful first drafts. […]