On my creative process…

A young man wearing a gray hoodie and a baseball cap, writing in a notebook while standing.

The beauty of writing is that you can edit your manuscript to your heart’s content. I’ve edited chapters down to a single page, turned run-on paragraphs into a single line, expanded a single scene into an entire book. You can subtract or add words until you express yourself as best as you can. There’s no need to show anyone what you’ve written, unless you decide it’s ready to be shown.

That said, a bad first draft isn’t a factor. You can rewrite it and edit it until it satisfies you.

Explore the Worlds Behind the Stories

Kent Wayne’s ideas about storytelling, power, and human nature appear throughout his fiction.

If you’re curious how those ideas appear inside the stories, start with the Unbound Realm.

If you’re still exploring, follow the ideas:


Comments

14 responses to “On my creative process…”

  1. I know of one author (Deric Longden), who would spend his whole working day producing just one paragraph. And it’s easy to read. There’s a temptation to think it might have been easy to write. Not so. Not at all.

  2. Sara-Loretta Hardin Avatar
    Sara-Loretta Hardin

    Somehow I needed to read this today. I have some unfinished projects and each time procrastinated, knowing I was not satisfied and edited/revised, yet I know that one day I will finish them. Then I will be ready to show them as you mentioned in your writing in that aspect. Have a wonderful week ahead!

  3. One of the most helpful things I learnt was that a first draft should be messy.

  4. Excellent, motivating, inspiring. Getting started/back on track here with my expressions. Thank you!

  5. Wow interesting…

  6. This is why I prefer editing over writing sometimes, haha!

  7. I actually have a disability where a part of that disability affects my hand writing. So I type, but since I have acquired a brain injury in 2005, I have been fairly reliant on writing. It was not until I graduated with my first degree that I took more of a interest in writing.

    I tried journalism school, and my outspoken nature got me expelled. Then COVID happened, and now I am pursuing a second degree and I write all the time. I personally feel that the editing process, and the attention to grammar and spellings of words tend to make you speak clearly, and if you had used Twitter the word limit made you speak more precisely as to get your point across.

    You just need to be mindful that you are not over editing your work, sometimes when I edit stuff, I cut out the parts that others would have rather I left in.

  8. Kitashia Lacelle Avatar
    Kitashia Lacelle

    Damn, I was hooked. I need to get money to get the blood. It’s on my to be read list

    1. I hope you enjoy it!

  9. I’ve been rewriting the same paragraph for three weeks now. I don’t know that I’ll ever be satisfied so I’ll just stop ….until the next time I read it. (ahaaaa)

  10. Agreed! Don’t let the roughness of a first draft derail the story. Why perfect now what you may need to change later after a great idea in two or three chapter?

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