Clash.

I wrote again today.

This is good. But there is also frustration there.

Here is the thing: What I want, more than anything right now, is to sit down with what I have written and go through it with a fine-toothed comb and start looking for the holes. I know they are there. And then when I find those holes, I want to fix them, patch them up, make them better.

But here is the other thing: Everything, and everybody, that I listen to whether from books or in real life who has gone through this process before says the same thing: DO NOT REVISE YET! Don't do it! Get your rough draft out first, then go back, find those holes, and fix them.

And I get it. I really, really do. And I know that is what I need to do. I need to get it out there. In the end, whatever I write it going to be torn apart and rewritten anyway, so I need that base to build on. That is what I need to be focusing on -- getting it down on paper. Because once you have the base you have the motivation to keep going. "Hey, I got this far, I'm not going to give up now..." Stop on the middle and try that, the tune might be a little different. "Oh, this is so much work!" And we all know what happens from there. So. So I continue on. But not without this struggle.

Here is my goal: By Spring Break, which is the second half of March, I would like to have my rough draft finished. Can I do it? If I work hard. Then, during those two weeks that I have nothing else to do, I can pull out those sticky notes (my personal "fine toothed comb") and get to work. So do it, Tiffany! Write! Get it down on paper!

Oh, it is so much easier when it is just a short story...


"Break up the larger story into its components, make sure you understand the exact function of each component (a story is like a machine with numerous gears: it should contain no gear that doesn't turn something), and after each component has been carefully set in place, step back and have a look at the whole. Then rewrite until the story flows as naturally as a river, each element so blending with the rest that no one, not even yourself two years from now, can locate the separate parts." ~John Gardner