A Little Editing

Have you ever had a paragraph in your story that just doesn’t seem to be working? You like what the paragraph is trying to do, you’re pretty certain it belongs, it seems to flow well from the one before and into the one after, and yet every time you read it, it bothers you. You try cutting it, but then there’s a hole in your scene. So, you put it back in and tell yourself you’re just being fussy. It’s not so bad. It’s fine.

Except it isn’t. It still bugs you, so you go through it one more time – and then you see it: one sentence. No, not even a sentence, just the second half of one in the middle of the paragraph. It repeated something you’d already included and felt a little darker than everything around it. Miraculously, removing that one phrase brought the whole thing together. What a relief. You reread it a couple more times to enjoy the difference between what works and what doesn’t. You know it when you see it.

The more often this process is repeated in my writing, the more convinced I am that my mind is often a story in need of just a little editing. One thought like, “This will never work,” or, “What’s the point?” can spoil my entire day and leave me feeling like a thing that doesn’t work. If I go down far enough, I start devising wholesale changes, thinking about abandoning writing completely and committing to a life of nothing but meditation and veganism. Anything to relieve the misery.

A single thought can be like a thorn in your boot. Walk with it long enough and your feet become bloody and swollen. Don’t turn back. Don’t buy new boots. Remove the thorn, rest a bit, soak your toes, and then carry on. There’s nothing wrong with you. A sentence has entered your story that doesn’t belong. You know it when you feel it, and how it nice it will be when you’re up and running once again.

Check out Fearless Writing with Bill Kenower on YouTube or your favorite podcast app.

Everyone Has What It Takes: A Writer’s Guide to the End of Self-Doubt
You can find William at: williamkenower.com