A few things I’ve learned during first let’s-get-serious-about-writing session:

1. Writing is 10% writing, 90% re-writing: Cowering in horror at your first draft is perfectly natural (because let’s face it, it sucks), but it’s a reaction that needs to be fought off (with violence if need be). This is why you need to force yourself to write. Hell, finishing that first draft is, in itself, a challenge. Duct-tapping yourself to your desk might be a lousy solution, but hey, if it’s the only one…

2. Clearing your head in between rewrites: It’s good to stop thinking entirely about a story while it matures. And the best way to get your mind off of a story for a week or so? Working on another story. Juggling with several stories works, but it means organizing your schedule meticulously (and sticking to it). More dedication.

3. Letting go: Any work of art is a tug-of-war between perfecting the work, and moving on to bigger and better. When you have an infinite supply of ideas, the temptation is to botch up the current project to jump to the newer, sexier idea. Which gets you zero results. The other extreme is to keep polishing your turd to make it shine just a liiiiittle bit further. Which doesn’t get you anywhere, either. Depending on who you are and what type of project you’re working on, you always run the risk to wander in either of those directions.

The curse of writing? It’s never over. There are plenty of collaborative medium where the work gets pulled and stretched in all directions until it pops out at the other end of the process (movies, videogames, etc). But if you’re medium of choice is the written word? Forget it. Anything you might think of changing is just 2 clicks away, so why not indulge yourself? Yeah, well, don’t. In the words of the great Tyler Durden: LET! GO!

What’s interesting is, I knew all of this before I started. But it just so happens to be (much) easier said than done. This all requires a dedication and an organization I didn’t quite grasp. Well, now that I do, onto the next one!