Tag Archives | self editing

Let’s talk about crap.

 

I have to wonder why I’ve been thinking about crap so much.  I mean it’s not really that interesting of a subject. Unless you’re an 8 year old boy. Wait. Cross that out. Unless you’re any boy under 95 years old.

If you’re interested in my previous thoughts on crap, read this post. You won’t find the actual word – crap. But it’s there all the same, lurking in the shadows. And then, it decided to show itself in this next post. Or if your computer is running slow and you don’t feel like clicking, you can scroll down to the two previous posts on my blog.

It could be because I’m knee deep in the stuff – as in writing a first draft. Or it could be that writers all over the blogosphere are proclaiming the right to write CRAP on the first draft. Because if you don’t allow yourself to write crap, then a strange phenomenon occurs. Rules invade your head and your writing gets constipated.

Show don’t tell. Cut, cut, cut. Not too much description. Only snappy dialogue – no fluff. No starting a scene with waking up. No mirrors allowed. Watch out for too many -ing phrases. Don’t forget sensory details.

You get the point.

A writer can feel so caught up in getting it perfect that not even good crap gets written. (And yes, there are levels to crappy writing.) Because there is this whole left brain-right brain (editor – creative writer) thing.

So, I’m jumping on board with the slew of writers out there knee deep in crap. And I’m loving it.

** And another thing – how come it’s so much easier to recognize crap in someone’s else’s writing, but now always your own? What’s up with that? So, to come in the near future – Tell tale signs of crap.

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