stark raving calm » navelgazing http://starkravingcalm.com a mad writer's blogoratory Fri, 16 Jul 2010 12:40:48 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9 en hourly 1 Picking Up The Red Pen http://starkravingcalm.com/archives/picking-up-the-red-pen http://starkravingcalm.com/archives/picking-up-the-red-pen#comments Mon, 21 Jan 2008 03:39:24 +0000 Jonathan http://starkravingcalm.com/archives/picking-up-the-red-pen Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> I hear a lot of writers talk about how they hate editing and would rather just churn out words. I may be closer to the other end of the spectrum. Most days I feel like a sculptor who finds the right rock and chips away everything that doesn’t look like a statue. I struggle with a blank sheet of paper; if something’s already written on it, I want to make it better. Is that just idea block? Do I not have enough practice at coming up with my own raw material? Or is that just who I am?

(Ed: three question marks and seven “I”s in one paragraph is far too much navelgazing. If you choose to read further, you have been warned.)

There are ways to trick myself into writing more and editing less. Like my typical writing attack, wherein I have no actual plan and just start banging on the keyboard (sometimes literally). Usually enough words end up on the page, and I can turn the shocked and indignant editor loose to find something I can cut out, fluff up and polish into a piece of… well, something. I force myself to program in much the same way, but it happens to require logical thought from the get-go. You don’t get very far just banging on the keyboard (and I have tried).

But maybe I don’t want to write more. Maybe I’d rather be an editor.

Take music. I can listen to a song in progress and figure out what it should sound like, but I can’t write music to save my life. Not that I’ve tried a whole lot.

If you asked me what my musical career of choice would be, I’d say producer. I love playing, but I don’t have enough technical talent to get by playing guitar and I can’t sing much. But I can put a stamp on a piece of music. I have strong opinions about which way the song should sound and I’ll tell you. It’s the same with a piece of writing. I can tell you what sucks about it and give you an idea to make it better. (Whether I’m right or not.)

So how do you try out editing? Do you find someone humble enough to practice on and hope you don’t kill a friendship with your red pen? I did some newsletter editing for AskSpace and really enjoyed it. Who wants to be next?

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