“I have not failed 10,000 times; I’ve successfully found 10,000 ways that did not work.” Thomas Edison
Ah, chapter 5, I wrote you day after day after day . . .
and found almost 10,000 ways that you DIDN’T work this week.
I wrote draft after draft, trying idea after idea, until finally . . .
the pieces all fit together.
Was that a failure?
Or was it a success?
It depends on how you look at it. Trying new ideas until one fits can be viewed either way.
Q. Is the book a failure because nothing seems to work yet?
A. Some days it feels that way.
Q. On the other hand, is it realistic to expect to find the piece that fits just right without any effort?
A. Not really. That’s why we write more than one draft.
We number our drafts (first draft, second draft, etc.) because we always write more than one. So why consider the need to write a new draft a failure if that is the way the creative process works?
Writing more than one draft of your book means you are succeeding, not failing! Don’t expect to find all of the pieces that fit in your story right away.
Magical thinking can be fun to read in a story, but it’s not a practical way to approach your writing.
magical thinking
“a belief that merely thinking about an event in the external world can cause it to occur.”
Mosby’s Medical Dictionary, 9th edition. © 2009, Elsevier.
Things don’t just happen because you want them to happen.
Things happen because you WORK to make them happen.
You’re not going to find all of the pieces that fit in your story right away.
You’re not going to find all of the pieces that fit if you stop writing either.
Will you keep writing this week
even when things don’t quite fit yet?
Copyright © 2017 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.