The First Draft of Anything is Poo

In kindergarten, I was beyond excited when I learned that we would get to write books! Imagine my disappointment when I learned that everyone in the class had to write the same book and draw the same pictures. Lame! I wanted to write my own story. Grr...I never quite got over that one. When it happened, though, I decided that one day I would become a bestselling author. It hasn't happened yet, but I'm still slightly obsessed with writing stories. 

My problem is that I write and write and write--and I don't like to revise or edit. And really, writing quality prose is mostly about rewriting. But I don't even like to read what I've written, let alone bother fixing it. I really should, though, because I invest countless hours laboring on these stories and I ought to make them good enough for other people to read. 

Right now I'm working on a series of novels, and I'm almost done with the rough draft of the first installment in the series (I already finished the rough draft of the fourth book in the series. I know, it wasn't the smartest thing to start near the end). I'm already dreading the revising and editing process. 

To give myself some motivation and remind myself that I really do want to finish my current project, I found some nifty go-getter quotes. 

"The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug." Mark Twain

"No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader." Robert Frost

"Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass." Anton Chekhov 

'The first draft of anything is poo.' Ernest Hemingway. Okay, that's not an exact quote, Guess which word I changed? See, I'm practicing editing already. 

"Always be a poet, even in prose." Charles Baudelaire 

"You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club." Jack London

"Write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open." Stephen King, On Writing. I think that means I should consider getting some beta readers. Eek! 

That's about all of my writerly brooding musings for today. I promise that not everything I post will be about writing or words or English. 

http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/writing