My internal critic is having a party with the pace of my current revision. My Critic loves to tell me I’m behind everyone else and that I’m going slow.
The best defense against this has been a writing community. As writers we are solitary creatures, but that does not mean we don’t need the support or that we don’t crave it. I have found it is even MORE important to have a community of writers who are in the same stage of writing as you. Going through courses and workshops are often the most satisfying for me because of the amount of support I feel from not only the instructor but the people doing the courses as well. Everybody is in the same boat.
For revision, it’s been so wonderful to have that type of support. Knowing there are others staring at a mess, a pile of words you thought was brilliant but now is full of holes, or even brilliant lines that need to be dug out and recycled somehow. I cannot recommend enough finding a group of people in the same stage of writing as you.
My Critic feeds off of watching others zoom through a process seemingly unhindered, making huge strides in their writing as if they are on hyperdrive compared to me. I’ve been working on this project for almost two years now, and that’s okay. It will be that much better for the time I’m taking to learn my process and to get the plots where I want them to be. But sometimes, sometimes I just wish I could be one of those people who could write a draft, revise, and edit in a year or less.
A book per year! Wouldn’t that be something!
Alas, I have a lot to learn about my process before I can do that. Always good to have a goal I guess. Ha!
Do you have a writing community? Is your writing project going slower than you’ve hoped? Know you’re not alone and you’re doing just fine!
Happy Writing!
Rachel
Subtle Stories 