Moira Keith

How many times do you slave away at the keyboard, only to second guess elements of your story? Please do not tell me I am the only nut job out there suffering from this affliction. Over the course of the last few months I have been working my fingers to the bone on my paranormal story, in between edit rounds of course , wondering if I am headed in the right direction. I find that my rounds of ‘questioning’ follow pretty much the same pattern 

1. Unhappy with a story element
2. Try to fix and questions arise regarding the plot points
3. While attempting to navigate through murky waters of said questions, I contemplate what would happen if I lose one of the elements of the story.
4. Begin to write element out and start to second guess the decision. 
5. Turn to trusted friends and crit partners, who tell me they think the element should stay, but that I am the author. 
6. One or more of them slap me senseless and tell me to stop second guessing the very elements that make my story unique and interesting. 
7. A few rounds of brainstorming and I go back to the manuscript with a renewed fervor that will sustain me until i can start this glorious process all over again. 

So, I ask all of the enlightened and inspiring writers out there-

How do you deal with second guessing yourself? Or do you even second guess yourself? Have you learned to control that nagging little voice in the back of your head or simply gagged and hog tied her until you reached the end? I’ve tried locking mine up but it would seem the art of lock picking has not surpassed my dear inner voice. I throw myself at the mercy of my peers and beg for you to share your wisdom!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 25th, 2009 at 7:16 pm and is filed under Inquiring Mind, Ponderings, Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.