Two-holiday decorating for the price of one. I went to the Christmas Tree Shoppe yesterday [love that store!] and found these cute green wreaths. Now I can be ready for Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day all at once!
Anything to make life a little easier, besides I like green better than red.
Do I normally like to cut corners? Well, yes.
When it comes to housecleaning, decorating, laundry, yard work...I will take the easiest way out. Whatever gets the job done with the least amount of effort is for me. Sad, but true.
Fortunately this doesn't extend to my writing. There, I take the long, hard road as opposed to the short cuts every time. I write long hand these days [some of you are moaning, I know] but I actually get more work done that way. Then I type up my rough draft, doing first round edits as I go. Then I proofread, edit, proofread, send to my CPs, proofread and edit based on CP's suggestions, proofread and edit again. Then I say a small prayer before sending my manuscript out to an editor or agent, even someone I've worked with before.
No shortcuts. Why? Well, I don't want my work to ever look like something I just threw together. [Yesterday I redoctorated my living room for under $30.00. I bought some new pillows, a pretty mohair throw for the couch, some inexpensive new valances for the windows and in 15 minutes the room had a new look.] It works for the living room, but that won't work for a manuscript. I can't spruce something up with a quick once over and believe it's good enough for the public to see. If someone ever says, "Oh, her living room is sooo...thrown together." Hell, I'll survive. But I don't want someone to be able to say that about my writing. I'm a firm believer that the more effort you put into your work, the more effortless it actually looks. I have no problem with anyone thinking I write flawless first drafts and never need to be edited. I know the truth. And I have no problem with people thinking I redecorated my living room in 15 minutes because they'd be right.
6 comments:
And here I was thinking you write flawless first drafts...
I'm in the longhand writing camp too, so I know what you mean!
Sorry to burst your bubble, Jen. ;) Half the time I have trouble READING my own first drafts. The down side of long hand is sometimes even I don't know what my scribbling means.
You know I've started writing long draft because I feel like I can think clearer that way. I don't know what it is, but it works. And I agree. Some things just need to take time for them to be worth anything.
I agree, Isabelle. In most things I'm very impatient and want instant satisfaction, but I'm willing to take the long road for writing because I know the results are better.
LOL -- I'm the same way. I sit at my computer making the most terrible faces saying, "What does that say?" because not only can't I read my handwriting, but I've got no recollection of writing it in the first place!
I've sometimes come across lines in my published books and said, "Wait a minute! Did I write that?" And I have to go back and check and my original drafts. Sure enough, I wrote it.
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