The way I start a story is rarely how I finish it. And writing is pretty much always this way. Which is a good thing. No, it's a fantastic thing. The first draft of anything should never, ever see the light of day. Or anyone's eyes. But yours of course, the first time around. Then said eyes need to watch yourself retyping a great deal of it. And this is for any writer. Pro or amateur.
As Hemingway once said, and I'm going to paraphrase, "All first drafts are crap."
Clearly, he didn't say "crap." That wasn't the word he used. That wasn't Hemingway. But, I digress. Here's the thing. He's right. First drafts are garbage. Always. They must be rewritten.
Now, sometimes when articles and things getting printed, what you think will be printed won't always be the case. I know this first hand. I've written many things that have been edited sharply. Things I wrote, that turned out nothing like what I submitted. That's the free right of any editor. I get it.
But, there was an article I just had printed via Mamalode (great magazine) that did this to me. Again. And in this case, it's title of the piece. The title has no relevance to what they printed because they omitted the last few paragraphs. Paragraphs that really I thought, in my humble view, should've stayed in there.
Oh well. What's done is done. The title is like the most ridiculous title now that there is no mention of it in the article. But, that's not my problem. Not my issue to debate either. Apparently, they thought it was fine enough to leave that part -- only the gist of the entire thing --out of the story. (You can read my original post here ◄)
Anyway, here it is. Click here to read, my rewritten blog post from a few years ago, called Jazz Music at Night. ◄ I still like how it turned out ... even if it's distorted, non-sequitur (well, kind of) and missing stuff.
Sounds a great deal like me.
As Hemingway once said, and I'm going to paraphrase, "All first drafts are crap."
Clearly, he didn't say "crap." That wasn't the word he used. That wasn't Hemingway. But, I digress. Here's the thing. He's right. First drafts are garbage. Always. They must be rewritten.
Now, sometimes when articles and things getting printed, what you think will be printed won't always be the case. I know this first hand. I've written many things that have been edited sharply. Things I wrote, that turned out nothing like what I submitted. That's the free right of any editor. I get it.
But, there was an article I just had printed via Mamalode (great magazine) that did this to me. Again. And in this case, it's title of the piece. The title has no relevance to what they printed because they omitted the last few paragraphs. Paragraphs that really I thought, in my humble view, should've stayed in there.
Oh well. What's done is done. The title is like the most ridiculous title now that there is no mention of it in the article. But, that's not my problem. Not my issue to debate either. Apparently, they thought it was fine enough to leave that part -- only the gist of the entire thing --out of the story. (You can read my original post here ◄)
Anyway, here it is. Click here to read, my rewritten blog post from a few years ago, called Jazz Music at Night. ◄ I still like how it turned out ... even if it's distorted, non-sequitur (well, kind of) and missing stuff.
Sounds a great deal like me.
