Wednesday 30 March 2011

Writing Wednesday: Seeking perfection


Great was my pride when I finished Draft 2 of my travel memoir the other week. I had been working at the edits since Christmas and it was a wonderful feeling to reach the end.

I printed it out onto pristine paper so I could review it again. But silently, quietly, I was thinking:
Great! 
This is it! 
A few spelling mistakes, a couple of tweaks, and I'm done! 
Hooray! 


See how beautiful it looks! Clean white pages. Sharp black print. All in line, numbered, sorted and ready. It is even a brand new lever arch file (nothing but the best for my baby!)

I took a couple of weeks away from it, giving my brain a little space and a break from the words swimming around my head. I had been only a week or so late for my half-term deadline for Draft 2, so there was still plenty of time until my Draft 3 deadline (Easter). Why worry?

Besides, it looks great!

This week I resolved to do the final bits and pieces, pull it all together, begin the final run through. Yes, I was starting the third draft later than planned, but I remained confident that I could run through it before Easter, before the children are on holiday again and mess up all my routines.

Half an hour, and the first page looks like this:


*sigh*

Looks like I'll have to revise my deadlines again...

2 comments:

Tim Atkinson said...

Ah, the travails of the true author... At least be reassured that what you've described is the difference between good and bad writing, real and wannabe writers: editing. Writing's the easy bit...

The bike shed said...

I love editing my writing - the first draft is what kills me. It's absolutely standard for me to have version 27 or version 42 next as the working file name of my latest piece.

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