Gregory Gottfried has found that many writers struggle to actually
complete any of their work, instead getting so bogged down in redrafting
that they never manage to take a story through to its conclusion. There
are a number of reasons why you should avoid doing this if you want to
find success as a writer, including all of the following.
You Actually Finish
Writing can be a slog but it starts to feel pointless if you never manage to finish what you started. Instead of making constant edits, get everything that you can down on paper and conclude the story. It will almost never be great at the first attempt, but you get the sense of achievement that completion brings and can then work on touching up weak areas to make the story even better.
The End Helps You Understand the Build Up
Your entire story will be building up to a conclusion that you probably already have in your head, but you may not fully grasp how it all fits together until you actually get that conclusion written down. You can then go back and examine how everything ties into that ending, allowing you to tighten up loose plot threads and make sure the story continues to build to that climax in the way you wanted.
Less Difficult to Edit
What do you think is more difficult between making cuts to a manuscript that you have redrafted time and time again or making cuts to a rough first draft? Gregory Gottfried points out that the more you edit before you get the story finished, the more invested you are in the end product, which makes it all the more difficult to see the faults that it possesses.
You Actually FinishWriting can be a slog but it starts to feel pointless if you never manage to finish what you started. Instead of making constant edits, get everything that you can down on paper and conclude the story. It will almost never be great at the first attempt, but you get the sense of achievement that completion brings and can then work on touching up weak areas to make the story even better.
The End Helps You Understand the Build Up
Your entire story will be building up to a conclusion that you probably already have in your head, but you may not fully grasp how it all fits together until you actually get that conclusion written down. You can then go back and examine how everything ties into that ending, allowing you to tighten up loose plot threads and make sure the story continues to build to that climax in the way you wanted.
Less Difficult to Edit
What do you think is more difficult between making cuts to a manuscript that you have redrafted time and time again or making cuts to a rough first draft? Gregory Gottfried points out that the more you edit before you get the story finished, the more invested you are in the end product, which makes it all the more difficult to see the faults that it possesses.
