Hi everybody! I made it back from Vegas in mostly one piece. I had a lot of fun even if the first day and a half was spent being sick and I ended up spraining my ankle on Sunday. Didn't actually realize it was sprained until I got home, mostly because I'm stupid sometimes, but it happened. Before you all go making assumptions, I'm not one of those 'crazy Vegas people' and I am in fact quite the opposite. I think I 'do Vegas' wrong...but whatever, I had fun and got to hang out with my friends, so that was cool.
As I get closer to the end of my binder I just keep thinking about going onto the next phase of editing. It's a big step and one I have mixed feelings about. Part of me just wants to go back to actually writing because that's the fun part, but I know what will happen if I do that. There are a few things to keep in mind when getting through a part of the process you don't necessarily care for, and I thought I'd bring them up today.
First, if you don't like something, even a little bit, your brain will try and distract you from it. At least mine does, but mine's also a jerk and demands that things on walls be straight and parallel with other stuff, so it might be a bad judge. Either way think about when you were little and it was dinner time, everyone has something they didn't like eating and their parents would make them do it anyway. Some people went through the stages of loss before actually eating it. Whether it was vegetables or steak, as was the case with me, you would be angry you were being forced to eat it, try to bargain your way out of eating it, try to think of ways to not eat it that would super totally work and there's no way your parents would ever notice, depressed that we have to eat something we think is so terrible, and finally acceptance of what's going to happen. They might not happen in that order, but acceptance is generally at the end. Sorry, went on a tangent, either way your brain will try to help you not do the part you don't like. Say there's a video game that's coming out around the same time, your brain will start hyping the game up so much in your head that if you don't play it on release and obsess over it as much as possible you'll feel like you're doing it wrong. Same goes for anything else that you enjoy even slightly over that specific part. You need to make sure you don't let it win.
Also, keep in mind that depending on what process it is, unless it's finishing the project, it's going to be repeated. The writing portion is the first draft which hints that it will be the first of however many you feel is necessary. Editing is the same way, and as I mentioned previously, sometimes even finishing the story happens a few times. Now even if you need to repeat the process until it's perfect that doesn't mean it's an unending cycle, no matter how much your brain wants you to believe that. There is a real end to it, the process is just time consuming and you need to be prepared to handle it. Just remember to be patient and persevere, no matter how badly you think it's hopeless; the project will eventually end.
The moral of the story is, I guess, that the brain is a total jerk when it comes to doing something that is difficult. Humans like doing things the easy way, because easy is easy obviously. The other thing that's happening is that you are forcing your mind to adjust to a new habit, which is always difficult, and the brain doesn't necessarily want to do that (it has enough going on anyway, being a brain and all) which means that you are going to have to put a lot of effort into getting everything done, especially those places you don't like. There's a part of story writing that everyone doesn't care for; some people might love the crap out of editing while others like world building, but not so much writing down all the fluff, and there are others that are the exact opposite. Not liking each and every part doesn't mean you're a bad writer, it just means you're a person and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. Go at your own pace, but make sure that you don't let yourself get too distracted from what needs to be done, because if you don't you'll never feel the satisfaction of having a finished product.
Thanks so much for stopping by today. I should be back on schedule for the rest of this week. I had a lot of fun but I am really happy to be home, and not just because of the 40 degree temperature difference. I hope you have a great rest of your week and I'll see you all on Friday!
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