Getting on with it

A close friend who teaches creative writing gave me some good advice this week: ‘It doesn’t matter how the words come out, just get them down on paper’.

In the past I have been guilty of editing and rewording too much in the early stages of writing and have ended up spending so much time perfecting what I have already written that I fail to get the rest of the story down.

This time I am adopting a different approach; producing words every day to keep the plot moving forward, no matter how dreadful the writing. I have set myself a realistic, achievable daily target of 500 words which also means that on days when I double this figure, I can give myself a pat on the back. When I fall short, because of other commitments, it is not too difficult to catch up.

Schemes like NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month http://www.nanowrimo.org) in November encourage wannabe writers to churn out a novel in a month with the aim of producing a workable draft. Judging by the growing number of participants, this approach obviously works.

Having written mostly non-fiction articles in the past, I have always believed that planning is key. With fiction, I am beginning to see that it is getting on with it that counts. In the early stages, it has little to do with what you write but the fact that you do.

I have also noticed that on a good day the story just flows and takes me in unexpected directions, so much so that my opening chapters will have to be completely changed later on. They will, I am certain, be much better for it.

After all, many books on the bestseller list would never have been published if the author had submitted their first draft. Good books are not written, they are rewritten and the magic happens during the editing process.

With that in mind, I can happily continue producing 500 words of unpolished prose every day for some time to come.