This is a timely and reassuring post for where I’m at right now, having just decided to toss the past year’s worth of work on a new(-ish) project into the compost heap because what I’d written wasn’t turning out to be a Teddy Book. It both stings and excites me to have made that choice.
If you’re willing to touch on this, for your next post I’d be interested in hearing how you keep your iterative process purposeful and prioritised, especially in the early stages when you’re still testing out the broader strokes of a concept to decide what actually works on paper.
I would love to hear about this too. I went through notes on a trilogy recently and past me kept them relatively organised, with the important bits all in my subconscious for when I sit down to write, but it's still hard to keep track of the process.
Your discussion had me recalling a big exhibit of Michelangelo’s drawings. It was at the Met nine years ago. A lot of the material was what you would call iterative stuff for details of the Sistine Chapel frescoes: a large-room model of plastic panels reproductions formed the exhibition centerpiece. One of those studies was of a pig; it was on a sheet Michelangelo used in working out the mechanics of a hand. The pig, obviously, seemed odd. What did it mean?
Another gallery goer — knowledgeable about Michelangelo and acting as a sort of tour guide for his date — suggested a reasonable explanation. Paper was expensive in Renaissance Italy. Michelangelo might have been an extraordinary artist. But he was also a normal human being. In his idle or contemplative moments, his hands were restless. So while he thought, he did what anyone might do under similar circumstances: He doodled. On any surface at hand.
I constantly need this "to iteratate is divine" reminder. Perhaps I make it a permanent writing space fixture via post-it. Thanks for exploring this with us!
Those pretzels look amazing (and I’m guessing they took less than 11 drafts?) Perfectionism continues to be my Achilles heel, with the added nuance of Yes, my rough drafts seem better because I’m overall a better writer than Past Liz, but I still cannot just waltz past this iterative process.
I've just taken Write Better-Faster with Becca Syme, which focuses a lot on Clifton Strengths and Enneagram to help writers figure out their most effective process. My #1 strength is Communication, i.e., talking (I'm sure you're SHOCKED). That strength is much more prone to iterative drafting. While I don't want to work too hard on phrasing and wording because perfectionism is a bear, I have also accepted that I very often rewrite a sentence I've just written because I literally have to write it down to figure out if that's what I meant to say. Of course I have to force myself to keep going, but I'm trying not to beat myself up over doing a little iteration.
Then there are some strengths that have to accept that they have to sit and think a long time before writing a sentence, because they do all that iterating in their head. Everyone needs to edit, obviously, but just food for thought from a fellow Perfectionist.
I started drafting longhand a few months ago partially under the theory that because I write all day for work in front of a screen maybe it would be better to do the rest of my writing away from a screen. I was afraid it would make me more precious with my words, though, since every one would occupy this Physical Space filling my Physical Notebook to completion and I couldn’t backspace my way out.
I’ve been VERY pleased that the opposite has been true. I’ve never been less precious with my writing in my life and I’ve never written more consistently. If I realize I don’t like something I put an asterisk next to it with some notes in the margins and move on. If I realize I HATE something I’ll scribble it out and redo it and then move on. When I type things up (which I haven’t actually done since April) I edit as I go. I carry my notebook with me absolutely everywhere and grab whatever pen is closest and just write and annotate and get excited to rewrite based on the annotations. I’m no longer antsy about throwing out whole chapters if I need to which is something I used to be irrationally nervous about.
I know it’s not for everyone but if you’re someone who is scrolling these substack comments and have some of those same issues above I would heavily rec at least grabbing a cheap notebook (I found one I like and just buy the exact same one over and over lol) and trying it out, esp if you’re chained to screens all day.
I always love reading what tou have to say about iterative drafting. I'm trying to be better about it, and I feel like every piece of yours I read helps drill it into my head.
This is a timely and reassuring post for where I’m at right now, having just decided to toss the past year’s worth of work on a new(-ish) project into the compost heap because what I’d written wasn’t turning out to be a Teddy Book. It both stings and excites me to have made that choice.
If you’re willing to touch on this, for your next post I’d be interested in hearing how you keep your iterative process purposeful and prioritised, especially in the early stages when you’re still testing out the broader strokes of a concept to decide what actually works on paper.
I would love to hear about this too. I went through notes on a trilogy recently and past me kept them relatively organised, with the important bits all in my subconscious for when I sit down to write, but it's still hard to keep track of the process.
Needed exactly this today. Thank you!
Your discussion had me recalling a big exhibit of Michelangelo’s drawings. It was at the Met nine years ago. A lot of the material was what you would call iterative stuff for details of the Sistine Chapel frescoes: a large-room model of plastic panels reproductions formed the exhibition centerpiece. One of those studies was of a pig; it was on a sheet Michelangelo used in working out the mechanics of a hand. The pig, obviously, seemed odd. What did it mean?
Another gallery goer — knowledgeable about Michelangelo and acting as a sort of tour guide for his date — suggested a reasonable explanation. Paper was expensive in Renaissance Italy. Michelangelo might have been an extraordinary artist. But he was also a normal human being. In his idle or contemplative moments, his hands were restless. So while he thought, he did what anyone might do under similar circumstances: He doodled. On any surface at hand.
Thus a pig next to the hand of God.
I adore this.
I constantly need this "to iteratate is divine" reminder. Perhaps I make it a permanent writing space fixture via post-it. Thanks for exploring this with us!
Those pretzels look amazing (and I’m guessing they took less than 11 drafts?) Perfectionism continues to be my Achilles heel, with the added nuance of Yes, my rough drafts seem better because I’m overall a better writer than Past Liz, but I still cannot just waltz past this iterative process.
I adore Liz in all her iterations. ;)
I've just taken Write Better-Faster with Becca Syme, which focuses a lot on Clifton Strengths and Enneagram to help writers figure out their most effective process. My #1 strength is Communication, i.e., talking (I'm sure you're SHOCKED). That strength is much more prone to iterative drafting. While I don't want to work too hard on phrasing and wording because perfectionism is a bear, I have also accepted that I very often rewrite a sentence I've just written because I literally have to write it down to figure out if that's what I meant to say. Of course I have to force myself to keep going, but I'm trying not to beat myself up over doing a little iteration.
Then there are some strengths that have to accept that they have to sit and think a long time before writing a sentence, because they do all that iterating in their head. Everyone needs to edit, obviously, but just food for thought from a fellow Perfectionist.
I started drafting longhand a few months ago partially under the theory that because I write all day for work in front of a screen maybe it would be better to do the rest of my writing away from a screen. I was afraid it would make me more precious with my words, though, since every one would occupy this Physical Space filling my Physical Notebook to completion and I couldn’t backspace my way out.
I’ve been VERY pleased that the opposite has been true. I’ve never been less precious with my writing in my life and I’ve never written more consistently. If I realize I don’t like something I put an asterisk next to it with some notes in the margins and move on. If I realize I HATE something I’ll scribble it out and redo it and then move on. When I type things up (which I haven’t actually done since April) I edit as I go. I carry my notebook with me absolutely everywhere and grab whatever pen is closest and just write and annotate and get excited to rewrite based on the annotations. I’m no longer antsy about throwing out whole chapters if I need to which is something I used to be irrationally nervous about.
I know it’s not for everyone but if you’re someone who is scrolling these substack comments and have some of those same issues above I would heavily rec at least grabbing a cheap notebook (I found one I like and just buy the exact same one over and over lol) and trying it out, esp if you’re chained to screens all day.
I always love reading what tou have to say about iterative drafting. I'm trying to be better about it, and I feel like every piece of yours I read helps drill it into my head.