Thank God. Nothing major broke. The evacuation went smoothly. And the storm was not as bad as predicted. Now we can worry about other things, like 17-year-old unmarried mothers and Republicans in general.
And writing.
Shoulda gotten more done this weekend, didn't, as I was distracted by the hurricane and the Last Day Of Summer. I'm feeling good about the work, though, and I know I'll be cranking hard soon. I'm instituting a daily word quota, just to see if I can force myself to pile up a bunch of pages quickly. Like, a whole chapter's worth, stat. Should be easy-peesey, right? Since I have the whole book outlined and researched and everything.
Au contraire.
I much prefer rewriting to initial writing. Initial writing is way too much like real work, and I agonize over it far more than I need to. I always feel like I'm screwing up the story, or just plain sucking, and then the internal editor kicks in and I catch myself redoing the same paragraph seven times and then I stop in frustration.
Rewriting is much more fun and a bit easier, though agony often remains.
Writing is not for sissies.
I happened across a quote from the great Edna Ferber, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of classics like Show Boat and Giant, which I thought perfectly conveyed that sentiment. The lady knows of what she speaks; she wrote a few dozen plays and novels and was a member of the Algonquin Round Table, matching wits with contemporaries like Dorothy Parker.
Anyway, this is something she wrote in A Peculiar Treasure:
“Only amateurs write for their own amusement. Writing is not an amusing occupation. It is a combination of ditch-digging, mountain climbing, treadmill and childbirth. It may be absorbing, racking, relieving, but amusing, never.”
Well said, Edna.
I am definitely not amused.
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