Does Your Writing Evolve? |
| Posted: 08 Jul 2011 02:39 PM PDT Some may disagree with this comment but as I continue to write I can't help but to look back and see how my writing is or has changed. Have you done that? Do you do that? Is it even worth doing it? I mean, can we learn anything from comparing our latest work to work we completed months or even years ago?
I don't know really that's why am presenting it to you. I can tell you that I don't compare anything to my very first manuscript because that was simply horrible. I learned a great deal writing it but I'm pretty sure that one will never see the light of day. I've found myself comparing my latest novel to my last on a number of occasions. It's not over anything major but the comparison is still there. I wonder if I will compare the third to the one I'm writing now or to both past novels. What am I comparing? Before I started writing this novel I made it a goal to attempt and build more of the setting and establish more depth to the characters during the first writing instead of fleshing it out during the revisions. That was a challenge because I instantly made a comparison between how fast I wrote the first draft of my first novel to this one which was going much slower. Of course the pace, flow and other aspects of the story itself was different from the first but that's not exactly what I'm talking about. A big comparison came about when I began the first round of revisions. No, I'm not done with that round yet but I am getting close. The first novel looked like I bleed all over it from beginning to end which didn't surprise me because all my past work, to that point, looked much the same. The revisions for my current novel are much different. They seem to be sporadic throughout the novel. That doesn't mean I don't catch some misspelled words or messed up sentences throughout. No, I'm talking about major revisions. You know, the kind that changes a whole scene or paragraph. These major revisions seem to pop up in clusters throughout. Does this mean my writing is evolving? I'm not sure about that. I think it means I'm getting more of my thoughts and ideas on the paper during the first draft. I believe the revisions are showing that. Then again, I could right my third novel and bleed all over it...who really knows. I do know that, as authors, we should always attempt to push ourselves and the only way to know if we are pushing our abilities is to compare it to what we did in the past. That may provide a solid gauge for us to use. Again, I'm not sure if our writing evolves or just improves. Is improving the same as evolving? How do you gauge your writing? Do you ever compare it to your past writing? 
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