Drafts

I often get mad at myself when I write my stories.

You see, I have all these ideas in my head, but when I begin to write them down, my attention issues get in the way.

I get so focused on getting ONE detail or word right that by the time I get that done, I’ve lost the rest of what I wanted to write and I sit and stare at a blank part in my story on my screen.

Then there are times when the words flow and flow and I am typing and typing. I read it back and everything I just wrote is drivel… crap… stupid…. but oh so pretty at the same time. And I have to go back and fix my words and lose my flow.

It’s one of the reasons why I have had so many unfinished stories over the years and so many unfinished posts in my various blogs, and so many unfinished projects etc. etc….

I am sometimes so focused on perfection from the get go that I lose track of just getting the words out on to paper so that I can perfect them later.

After all, I have to have more than one draft of something. It’s inevitable. My days of English classes in high school and college courses have taught me to always have more than one draft.

Like life, writing isn’t perfect from the get-go. It’s not meant to be. It’s supposed to sometimes be a mess of words that seem like they are just strung together, held on loosely by some forms of punctuation and possibly have a misspelled word or two. Sometimes, there are vast run-on sentences and even sentences that just end abruptly, ones that aren’t finished at all.

And just as I am constantly working on being a better person, I also am constantly working on my writing. When I am not writing new words in new adventures, I am often editing my stories, smoothing out the misspelled words and the run-on sentences. I fix the missing punctuation and find new vocabulary to help with the repetitions so they flow better.

I often have draft after draft after draft after draft. It’s endless and sometimes frustrating to have to do the same story over and over again, but I can’t skip over these edits or else my stories won’t be complete.

I still have to train myself not to be perfect in my first drafts. If NaNoWriMo taught me anything, it’s that a mess of a first draft is okay, as long as the words are there. You can fix the words if they are there. You can’t fix a story without the words.

So, so what if the first draft is a mess? The second and third drafts will be too. But then, just as we are constantly changing and growing, the stories do to. The words flow better at certain times in our lives than in others. The punctuation and spellings are perfect when we are flying high, but not when we have our low points.

And that’s okay.

It’s okay to have several drafts of yourself.

Sometimes, it’s okay to toss out the entire story and start fresh.

What’s important is to keep writing your story. Write your words.

Don’t let the sentence stay ended abruptly. Press on and keep on flowing.

Put a ______ where a word might go. Add a (need more here) where you can’t come up with an idea just yet. Just write the words. Worry about the details later. They will come sometimes when you least expect it.

And yes, I am talking about both life and writing.

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If you’re interested in checking out the fantasy works I have written, check out my Portals Series. If you are interest in my other online endeavors, check out the drop down menu.

And as always, #WriteYourOwnStory