I recently had to zap the zit of a manuscript I was working on. Why? Because it was a nasty, festering ugly thing that had no purpose, no meaning. No matter how much I tried to ward it off or make it better, it just kept getting bigger and bigger until there was nothing else I could do except pop it.
What was so bad about it? Simply put, I tried to force a story to emerge when there really wasn’t one to tell. Well, I shouldn’t say that. There was a story in there…just not the right one. After 4,000 words, I’d worked my way into a corner and couldn’t back up. The crevice began to back fill. The more I tried to fix it, the more the junk kept piling up. The plot closed in around me, my escape paths were blocked off. The infection spread, heaping one terrible idea on top of another until I had this giant manuscript pimple that had to go. I covered myself, shielded my eyes and brought out the heavy artillery – the DELETE button. After copying and saving some rather clever lines I’d written, I closed my eyes and exploded my manuscript.
I thought there would be repercussions. I thought I’d have a scar. After all, I’d destroyed my creation, but you know what? I felt relief. The pain was over. Now I have a clean slate, and a new manuscript that is flowing like water from a mountain stream. Smooth. Pretty. No yucky bumps.
Sometimes, you have to zap the zit.
I’ve got a lot of zapped zits on my hard drive. 🙂 I save them just in case there’s a character or detail I want to steal for another piece.
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I usually do the same but in this case, there wasn’t much salvaging. it had to go. LOL!
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I know EXACTLY where you’re coming from with this, because I’m having exactly the same problem at the moment 😦
I’m not sure I’m brave enough to delete it though 😉
Xx
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That explains all the shouting from Florida the other day. Boy, do you have a set of lungs. 🙂
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LOL!
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That’s a really courageous thing to do, some writers would go along with it without accepting deleting their work.
Nicely put by the way 🙂
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Thanks. 🙂 Just trying to add some humor to an otherwise ‘painful’ process.
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Your telling of the tale about how you ‘zapped the zit’ is almost poetry in itself! lol Glad you now have a clean slate on which to impart your beautiful words and create a fantasy even Tolkien would be proud to call his own! 🙂
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aww, you’re so sweet. I bow to your awesomeness!
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I can’t bring myself to delete. But I do have a folder that basically serves the same purpose. 😉
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I usually NEVER delete but this story was so bad, I didn’t want to even remember I’d written it. I saved the parts I thought had redeeming features. The rest was popped and wiped away. 🙂
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Haha. Loved the analogy. And I’m glad the zit didn’t leave a scar. Smooth canvases are good. 🙂
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You know, my post on zits combined with your post on poop and earwax might just cause people to wonder if today is body excrement day. 🙂
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I think you might be right. 🙂
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I know how you feel.
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LOL. Are you beyond Chapter 3 yet?
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I had to do some pre-writing last week and over the weekend before I could finish Scene 2 of Chapter One, but I’ve just finished that and I should be finished with 2 today and starting on the next bit.
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