No, it really is. You sit down, you type a bunch of words (or write them on paper, if you prefer the analog method), and you move on, right? Yeah, maybe. That works great if you write strictly for recreational purposes and you have no intention of letting anyone else read the drivel you’ve spewed. There’s plenty of written works out there that fly in the face of my prior statement. But, I truly believe that if you’re serious, and you really want people to enjoy what you’ve written, that the actual writing part is easy. It’s everything that comes after that, well, just plain sucks.
That’s where I am right now with The Dagger Rose. The rough draft is finished, and there’s nothing I want more than to go straight to publishing—but I know better. I’m not sure about anyone else, but when I run across a typo, or a poorly worded sentence, it brings me to a halt and completely sidetracks me. That is something I’d like to (and plan to) avoid. Enter monotony.
The monotony is composed of self-edits and rewrites. I can tell you in all honesty, that I would rather stick toothpicks under my fingernails, but I find that severely complicates typing. Worse yet, I get started, it’s all too easy to come down with what I call “George Lucas Syndrome,” meaning you obsessively fiddle with your piece and try and make it better, but never truly get anywhere.
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