the blanket problem

[jazzfish]

tl;dr: I hate revising because my brain is terrified I'll screw up something that's currently not-terrible.

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So I have this story. It's okay, people seem to like it, but it needs more. So I'm adding in a scene or two and filling in some backstory.

I can't shake the sense that every change I make is, instead of improving things, ruining whatever it was that made the story good to start with.

I complained about it on twitter, and talked it over with a couple of people, and suddenly that looked really familiar.

Imagine it's the dead of winter, and you've woken up in the middle of the night. You're buried under blankets and you're mostly warm enough. Only mostly, though. You've started to get a little chilly.

There's a thermostat on the wall. You can get up and turn the heat up a couple of degrees, and then you'll be fine.

Trouble is, you have to get up. Get out from under the blankets, into the cold air, where you'll be genuinely cold instead of just a bit chilly.

Instead I have a bad habit of staying buried under the blankets and convincing myself that I'm not really that cold. And compared to how I'd be while I'm out, it's true! It just misses the point that I'd be completely comfortable pretty soon after, for some small effort and discomfort now.

Same thing. The story as it is works, sort of. Why mess with it? Why risk making it worse?

Answer: Because it doesn't work, because there is no 'sort of works' any more than 'sort of comfortable.' Because it's worth making the story better, and if that makes it worse to start with then I can correct that when I hear about it.

Comments

[okrablossom]

> One that I have a really hard time applying to writing.

I wonder whether this is easier for me because I began my "serious" writing with poems, which are much shorter, and while I find they can take as much effort as a short story (for me) they also can feel more throw-away.

Another idea might be to try writing exercises, if that appeals to you at all, because the whole point there is to try and not necessarily to complete? If that makes sense at all.

And thanks for the thoughtful response, it's fun to talk writing methods with another writer.

[jazzfish]

That makes sense. As I mentioned to Joe above, Ursula Vernon's story about learning to throw pots on a wheel, and how you make an awful lot of bad pots and you get used to the idea that that's how you get better, really spoke to me... but right now a story is so much effort it hurts to think about throwing it away.

Writing exercises are not a bad idea! I just need to find some I am okay with. Time to dig up Ursula Le Guin's writing book, I think.

And, yes. It's fun talking shop. I've missed it. :)

[okrablossom]

> Writing exercises are not a bad idea!

Woot!!

And it just occurred to me (because there are 1000 poetry writing exercise books) what it would be like to use them to write prose. Hmm...