If you ignore the words on the screen (or printouts) you can simply write whatever’s next. Resist re-reading the previous session’s output and you’ll force the story to progress.
Resist continual re-reading and revising. Many writers obsessively pore over their previous work as they write instead of pushing past the existing words with a promise to deal with edits later.At the end of a writing session, walk away and don’t look at it until you return for your next session.
Don’t sneak pages into a bag or peek at it on your phone.
#THE ARTFUL CANINE LEADS HOW TO#
Figure out how to make it sound less familiar. To hear with greater objectivity, try to create some distance from the draft. Thankfully, Bell offers some suggestions. But how can we hear past the “emotional filters” she mentions? How can we “learn to hear ourselves better”? We gain time and objectivity to shepherd our own words by listening. As we read our writing, how can we learn to hear ourselves better? (2) But to edit is to listen, above all to hear past the emotional filters that distort the sound of our all too human words and to then make choices rather than judgments.
We are loath to put an objective ear to our subjective selves. Already I can tell that Susan Bell’s approach to editing has less to do with comma-spotting and more to do with staying attentive and open to more important matters: ponder the piece to comprehend its purpose and meaning listen to determine the pace and sound of the writing itself.Įditing anyone’s writing in this way calls for objectivity while shepherding both the author and his words. Actually, it requires the same thing when self-editing: objectivity. Recently I plucked from the shelf The Artful Edit: On the Practice of Editing Yourself, by Susan Bell. Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 7:11 - 9.9MB) | Embed
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