Hooks and Books

Hello and welcome to my first ever 'Wednesdays with Wart' post. Basically, Wednesdays with Wart is my attempt to make sure I regularly update this blog. So, pretty much expect a post every Wednesday on some topic related to writing, books, or Crochet.

This week's topic: editing!

I'll be honest with you, I'm atrocious at editing. I am very very lazy. But Editing is important. So important I felt the need to capitalize it in that sentence (it's not a typo I'm leaving for funzies, I swear). I have this bad habit of just skimming over whatever I've written - be it an essay or a story - and that's not enough because, inevitably, I will miss something.

So, how to make sure you edit? Here's some things I do:

Write by hand first. I do this for two reasons: 1. The internet is really distracting. 2. When I go to type, I will edit as I type.

Type the second draft on a typewriter. Again, the internet is really distracting, and again I can edit when I retype on my computer. Also, I just really like using a typewriter :)

Take a break. Once I've finished something, I'll set it aside for awhile. At least a few weeks, preferably longer, because then when I come back to it I'll have cleared my mind of all the many rereads I've already done and while it won't be fresh and new, it will at least be less recent in my mind and I'll be able to look closer at it because I won't skim parts I think I remember well enough.

So, there are my editing strategies! What about you? What editing strategies do you have?

Next week on Wednesdays With Wart: Dear Rick Riordan, Demeter could totally Kill you.

I think one of the biggest difficulties I have with writing is making sure I work a little every day. I'm terribly easily distracted - everything from television to books to new story ideas can quickly pull me off task and by the time the day's out I haven't worked on whichever story I've chosen as my focus.

It's frustrating, and I still can't seem to master it.

Here are a few of the tricks I've tried:

+ Writing at the same time everyday - good because it gets me into a rhythm. Tricky because I don't get up at the same time everyday.

+ Alternating - this was a suggestion made by a good friend of mine. She suggested I alternate and work on a different story every day. It worked for a little, but I think the reason it didn't stick was because then I was working on too many stories at once. If I try it again, I think I'll just pick two stories instead of one for every day.

+ Writing at least a sentence every day - this was good because even in my least write-y moods, I can usually crank out at least a sentence. The problem is if I only wrote a sentence a day for a few weeks, I wouldn't get very far, so of course I got discouraged.

I'm still trying to master this problem. I'm thinking of trying a sort of reward system: for every so many pages I write, I then take a break and watch something. I've got plenty of DVDs, so that should be a good system. If all else fails, I can just watch 'Eerie, Indiana' while I write, since I have that show memorized :)

What are some tricks you use to stay on task with your writing?