Can't take the credit for this, I'm afraid - I was reading a blog post at the busy mockingbird (about lunch bags, of all things!) and noticed she'd retweeted 'the creative process'. It went like this...
1. This is going to be AWESOME!
2. This is hard.
3. This is terrible.
4. I'm terrible.
5. Hey...not that bad.
6. That was AWESOME!
Thing is, I reckon as writers, we go round this loop so many times...and depending on where we're at with the WIP, we might loop back at different stages.
So... when I lose faith in a piece of writing, and choose to start something new rather than persist with the original, I'm looping endlessly from number 2 or 3 back to the beginning of the process.
Assuming I actually finish something and ask for feedback... Number 4. Well, if the feedback isn't as positive as I'd hoped and I allow myself to believe that comment, I'll probably loop back to number 2.
But if I get good feedback and worth-affirming comments, I've reached number 5! At that stage, I'll probably loop back to do the final tweaks, bypassing 3 and 4 because by this point, I know they are not as true as I told myself they were back in the early days of the WIP.
And when I see my work published, I've reached number 6 - at last! That really IS awesome!
So for you, fellow writer, at what point do you find yourself looping back most frequently? And what can you do to help yourself get beyond it?
This has created some discussion on the Word Cloud. Have a look...
ReplyDeletehttp://writing-community.writersworkshop.co.uk/magazine/read/looping-the-loop_7119.html
How (write) you are Squidge, what a turmoil but why do we do it, I know my answer, It's better than day time t.v. Or I get these daft ideas pop into my head Or I don't really have anything else to do.
ReplyDeleteWhat I have never understood is why all these really clever people, that have (ology) degrees choose to write when they could spend time putting the world right,
Just amuse or a muse who knows? 'im from 'athern