Thursday, November 1, 2007

Where does good writing come from?

There's a writing fairy godmother who flits about the universe, visiting all writers, waving her magic wand over us so that we will all instantly produce perfect prose.

I'm sure you've met her.

You haven't?

Don't feel badly, I haven't either.

But, if I can indulge the thought for a moment, wouldn't that be wonderful?

Reluctantly letting that fantasy go, where, then does good writing come from?

I've been at this for a while and though I'm certainly not the definitive authority on the subject, I've learned that good writing comes from bad writing.

Good writing is made, not born. Often for many of us, first drafts of a piece of writing are a mess of rambling in places, with gaps you could fly a plane through in others. Reading over such a mess, it can be very difficult to believe that out of that muck, will come good writing. But the truth is, it will.

That first draft - messy as it is - is the most important writing we do because it gets the story from our heads to the page. Once there, we can go about moving words, discarding, and adding at will, turning bad writing into good. We'd never be able to do that if we didn't have something to work from.

I'm working my way through a first draft now, turning a mess of bad writing into good. I am getting there. But, if you happen to meet up with a writing fairy godmother, do send her my way : - )

Regards,
Karen

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