Writing Tip #11 - Go with your gut.

I'm sitting here, two weeks away from the submission and public presentation of Chapter One of my first novel...and I'm considering, once again, starting from scratch.

Why?

Because it's not good enough. It's not engaging. It's not funny. It's hardly even entertaining.

And then I realize, that may not be true. That may just be my nueroses creeping in upon what may very well be a decent little story.

Over the past year I have written a complete first draft of this novel. I have let it rest. I have picked it up and begun rereading it. I have reread it. I have reread it again. And I have crafted at least the early parts of the story into something worthwhile.

This manuscript has undergone a lot of change. And I don't like it.

Frustrated and frightened, this morning I opened up the very first electronic file of the Plotastic! novel. And I began reading again, from the beginning.

It's not bad.

In fact, in a few places it's pretty good. It just needs some cleaning up, some tightening up, some attention to the proper details... And I've already done some of that in the rewrite.

What I've come to realize is that this process of writing must be just that: a process. To get from concept to perfection takes a long time and many, many steps.

But more importantly I've realized that the first idea you write down, that first inkling of a story that was jotted in a crumbling spiral notebook or a bulging Moleskine was probably pretty damned good. Go with it. Use it. Turn it into something better. But certainly don't throw it away. You never know when you might need it.

-Mark