Ha, I experienced this recently. What's kept me from sending out some of my writing is doing the tedious research of where to send the work. So I've spent the past week doing just that. And you know what, with a glass of wine and some jazz in the background, it's actually an enjoyable process. Same with editing/rewriting.
If you don't love the full craft of writing (and it truly is 90% rewriting), then it probably isn't for you. There are a lot of people who want to "have written", meaning they want to have the published something but they didn't want to do the grunt work to get there. Think, the first draft is so brilliant it doesn't need editing and is published immediately - ta da! Yeah, that's not reality for hardly any writer. And it's really because editing and rewriting is such a process - a NECESSARY process. Can it be painful? Yes. Can it also be very rewarding and teach you more about your craft than anything else? Absolutely.
IMO this applies to having a democracy, and who likes that work? More likely we tend to think, "Can't somebody else do it?" (props to Homer Simpson on that one). Community-building is the "sanding" here.
I recently read Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert, and love how she says it: “choose your sh*t sandwich.” 😆 There’s monotonous work in everything.
This made me laugh: Nobody at the event said “Wow, great spreadsheet work.”
This is why I quit sewing--it's 90% ironing. Keeping the "why" front-and-center really helps when you're grinding through those details!!
Ha, I experienced this recently. What's kept me from sending out some of my writing is doing the tedious research of where to send the work. So I've spent the past week doing just that. And you know what, with a glass of wine and some jazz in the background, it's actually an enjoyable process. Same with editing/rewriting.
If you don't love the full craft of writing (and it truly is 90% rewriting), then it probably isn't for you. There are a lot of people who want to "have written", meaning they want to have the published something but they didn't want to do the grunt work to get there. Think, the first draft is so brilliant it doesn't need editing and is published immediately - ta da! Yeah, that's not reality for hardly any writer. And it's really because editing and rewriting is such a process - a NECESSARY process. Can it be painful? Yes. Can it also be very rewarding and teach you more about your craft than anything else? Absolutely.
This is such great framing-- most of life is sanding, so you might as well whistle while you work!
Thank you for the reminder that I probably should be doing more "sanding". :-D
That's also what I look for in hiring people - someone who loves the outcome so much that doing the detail / sanding well is a point of pride.
IMO this applies to having a democracy, and who likes that work? More likely we tend to think, "Can't somebody else do it?" (props to Homer Simpson on that one). Community-building is the "sanding" here.