Hi, my name is Judith and I'm an editor
Initially I wrote incorrigible editor, but that would have been too funny. Eternal editor comes close, it sounds like a sentence for life, or a life sentence. Internal editor, I could settle for that, but for the fact that "I am an internal editor", doesn't really cut it. I would have to change the beginning and make it something like: "My eternal editor has woken up", or, "this morning my internal editor woke me up and started arguing right off the bat." Whichever way I put it, my eternal editor started bashing the internal one, and since my Ego and ID were caught in between, I had to get up.
If you think the editor in me is keeping me from writing you're mistaken.
Nobody can keep me from writing. Not even the little devil that sits on my shoulder impersonating everyone I've ever known, who has said that there's nobody in hell (or on earth for that matter) who could be interested in one more original story.
"What could you possibly have to tell (that's new)?" in other words, "There's nothing new under the sun", or the unintentional (one hopes) "There's enough BS being published already."
The editor in me lets me write up a storm, but on a different level, she starts correcting my words and sentences, or challenging me, saying: what if this or that happened in such and so way. This is something I can live with any other day, week, or month, but not during NaNoWriMo.
Until Day #15 I was doing fine, every now and then I'd start dreaming during a Word War (when NaNo Warriors who have found each other on FaceBook start writing like fiends at the word GO and compare word count when TIME is called after one hour) but I'd whip myself back on track.
On Day #16 I was struggling with how and where I wanted the story to go. Was Sophie going to force Nita to tell Jake the truth while visiting her parental home, or could I delay that moment, or was the keeper of the gate who guards my own family's secrets trying to throw me for a loop.
Too Much Information (is this me or my internal editor, the cute little pesky devil on my shoulder, or the devil in disguise saying this?). I started reading instead of writing and before I knew it time was up and my word count had dwindled.
Day #17 I confronted my personal antagonists, told them to either shut up, or work for me, that I wouldn't stand for their B.S. anymore. Help me or Git Already! Got that!
At the end of the day I entered my last total word count, which was 37,161 or a daily average of 2,185 which isn't bad at all considering that you have to produce an average of 1,667 per day to reach the aim of 50,000 words by November 30.
How do you get them internal and external editors, critics and devils to shut up or become your allies?
This work by Judith van Praag is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License
7 comments:
That seems to be battle we face everyday! how do we get them to quiet down!
Meditation is one way or by observing what the two extremes have to say to one another.....
I wanted to participate so much this November but I am in final revisions and have a tough work schedule and oh had my gall bladder out. I think I will try myself in January.
When the voices on my shoulder start; I take a break or work on something else...or my favorite I play Scrabble Blast!
I usually put some time/space between external editor and the writer...but as for the internal editor who might prevent me from even getting the words down in the first place:
in my current book i wrote several weeks (or was it months?) worth of internal editor issues. stuff my writing group hated, and told me to knock off. but what they didn't understand is you can't tell someone to knock off doubts. doubts have to be dealt with.
so, i let the internal editor have her way with me until she's expressed all the reasons i shouldn't even bother.
then i proceed as planned.
congrats on your word count judith! (I'm at 33k myself!)
xo
I have developed a mantra that begins with "I deserve ..." and then I add in the elements that I'm struggling with. Like if I am frustrated with a bad cold I say: "I deserve good health" or with money I say: "I deserve to be fairly compensated for my work".
I sometimes even open my hands upward in a receiving position as if to permit the thing I say I deserve to come to me.
Once I establish those ground rules, the inner editors seem to quiet down and then I feel more free to get on with things. They can't argue with me opening myself up to the things I declare I deserve.
Ah, my editor and me--a real love/hate relationship there. Although if I remember to stay friends with the editor, that works best.
Oh, my goodness, I was so busy with my NaNo that I forgot to look at the comments! Thank you all for visiting and especially those of you who left a note, or gave me thumbs up elsewhere. FYI I finished the 50K on the 21st and continued plugging along and now I'm editing, adding some deleting some, revising et cetera.
@YogaSavi, You're so right. Morris Berman taught me to start each writing session with meditation. Can't say I do it all the time, but when necessary, I know where to go.
@Doreen You don't need an excuse for letting the words work their way into a story in your mind on a different level, I know how prolific you are, Scrabble away my friend!
@Tara I sure like your approach. In a similar vein I'll ask the universe to take care of my problems. And it often does —during the night, or when I go do something totally different then writing.
@Conda There you go, we are of the same mind.
@Anastasia, Sounds like your writing group is more of a critique group. As Morris Berman (whom I mentioned in comment above) said, "You've got to do a lot of 'barfing; before you get to the good stuff."
This is often the case when we address subjects that are so close at heart they're hidden by layers and layers of protective packaging material. Power to you girl for getting such stuff out in mere weeks or months. I've been writing for years going deeper and deeper and now finally feel ready to use that material. So many layers to shed just to get to the core, then so many layered stories to process. Again congrats with the work you've done. Reading your WIP I know it's going to be good.
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