A Clean Slate, Take 2

I’m about to pack up and leave Starbuck’s, and I feel pretty good.

Ever since I tried to reread A Clean Slate, I’ve been dreading the idea of starting again.  I knew that it was necessary.  The previous incarnation was bad enough that any attempt to fix it was going to be a complete rewrite.  It is easier and quicker just to dump the previous prose and start fresh.  Start A Clean Slate with a clean slate.

It wasn’t easy.  I managed to put it off last week by doing a bunch of outlining.  The outlining was necessary, but it also felt like I was procrastinating.  It felt like I was putting the scary part off for another day.

Why is it so scary?  Why does a brand new document fill me with so much dread?  It’s fear, for sure.  But why must I torture myself with all of this fear before I’ve even started?

I opened the new document tonight, selected the manuscript template, and filled in my name and the title of the story.  Then I procrastinated a little bit more, by taking to twitter and participating in #GenreChat.

Opening the new document was like riding a roller coaster to the very top, where everything slows down before the mad rush.  All of the anticipation is there, as well as the fear of crashing and burning.

#GenreChat finished, and I took the plunge.  I started slowly, picking up a little bit more speed as the setting started to solidify in my mind.  It wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t torturous, either.  Self-doubt tells me that it might be torturous to my readers, but to hell with self-doubt.

I’m a little more than 500 words into the prelude, and that seems pretty good for now.  It’s a start.  More importantly, it’s another place where I faced my fears head-on and succeeded.

Tonight was a good night.

3 thoughts on “A Clean Slate, Take 2

    • Thanks! I’ll try.

      I’m actually thinking of making quick posts here after writing sessions to keep a record of the trials and tribulations, as well as word counts.

      Another thing I’m thinking of doing is something similar to NaNoWriMo for March. I don’t know if I want to commit to 50,000 words in March, but I think I could commit to 25,000 or 30,000. Maybe 31,000 would be good, since the math for words per day is so easy then.

  1. “Why is it so scary? Why does a brand new document fill me with so much dread? It’s fear, for sure. But why must I torture myself with all of this fear before I’ve even started?”

    I think because you’re a writer 😉 We all feel that way when faced with the dreaded blank document!

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