So Kit Campbell and I are working on a secret project for Turtleduck Press. It’s a novel that we’re co-writing, and you’ll hear more about it in due time, after it’s been made suitable for public consumption.
In the meantime, though, we’re wading through the first draft. Well, I can’t speak for Kit, but I’m wading. Or wallowing, maybe. I’ve passed the halfway point and am flailing around in the late middle, feeling rather as if I’m trapped in Zeno’s dichotomy paradox. I’m also fighting the deep-seated conviction that the story sucks (or my half of it, anyway — I’m not about to say that for Kit’s half!).
However, I’m not the only one. Check this out:
The last novel I wrote (it was ANANSI BOYS, in case you were wondering) when I got three-quarters of the way through I called my agent. I told her how stupid I felt writing something no-one would ever want to read, how thin the characters were, how pointless the plot. I strongly suggested that I was ready to abandon this book and write something else instead, or perhaps I could abandon the book and take up a new life as a landscape gardener, bank-robber, short-order cook or marine biologist. And instead of sympathising or agreeing with me, or blasting me forward with a wave of enthusiasm—or even arguing with me—she simply said, suspiciously cheerfully, “Oh, you’re at that part of the book, are you?”
In case the novel title didn’t clue you in, that’s Neil Gaiman talking. Now, you may or may not be a fan of his work (personally, I always think I’m going to like it better than I do), but he’s a superstar as far as book sales go. Clearly he’s doing something right, despite his temptation to go off and become a marine biologist instead.
So if even Neil Gaiman can hit a point during the writing when he thinks his books are crap — with every book! — then (a) I’m in good company, and (b) our internal voices (aka Inner Critics) are liars.
Besides, even if it is objectively crap? That’s what editing is for. (And — bonus — this time I have a partner in crime. Which has been awesome, I have to say. Our writing process is similar enough that we’ve found collaboration to be quite smooth and a lot of fun, except for the voices in my brain.) On that note, I found this comforting:
So now, when I work on any story, from first draft to final revisions, I have a simple goal in mind: I just have to make it suck slightly less than it did before.
I can do that.
Right?