At the beginning of every month, as part of the Insecure Writer's Support Group, I take a look at my successes (not just in writing), share the ways I hope to improve in the next month, answer the IWSG question of the month, and provide inspiration (if I have any).
February Goals –
✓ Read a book.
✓ Finish getting through Hawaii travel guides.
✓ Complete Hawaii planning.
✓ Blog ahead.
Additional Successes –
✓ Watched a German late night tv show! Yes, it was in Denglish, but still!
✓ Language accountability partner ftw!
✓ Got through two books. Yes, they were both travel guides, but that counts.
✓ Checked off more items on my 101 in 1001 list. (Total count right now: 24! Only 77 more to go!)
March Goals –
• Read a book. (Preferably two, but I won't make that a goal since I will be blogging ahead this month.)
• Finish planning D.C.
• Reserve a rental car for Boston.
• Blog ahead and get prepared for the April A-Z blogging challenge!
IWSG Question: Have you ever pulled out a really old story and reworked it? Did it work out?
Do you know how much time I spend on editing?!?! … Or maybe the better question is: do you know how much time I could spend on editing?
So, no. I don't pull out old stories and rework them. I occasionally rework blog posts, but I even struggle with that. At what point is the "rework" too much? You can edit and edit and edit, but at some point, you just have to publish.
Let me give an example. (This is a non-writing example, but it still works.)
Up until I traveled to Hawaii two weeks ago, I was researching every second of every day in which I had any amount of free time. Heck, I would stay up late just to give myself more free time to research. But then the trip came. Now, one part of the trip involved spending a day driving the Road to Hana. Rather than enjoying the drive, I could have continued researching for the rest of the trip. And I won't tell you that I was completely opposed to doing that either. I definitely had guide books in the car with me that day. But, if I had spent the day researching I might have 1) found myself carsick and 2) not enjoyed the drive as much as I did.
Now tell me which you would rather do: let something go and just enjoy the ride … or bring it back up, constantly doubt yourself (which I already do enough of!), and miss out on the "now"?
I'm not saying that reworking a story is always a bad idea, especially if you know going into the rework exactly how you want to alter it, but I am saying that sometimes you just have to let the past remain in the past. If you spend all of your time "fixing", you will never move beyond that.
Your Turn
First and foremost, if you are a blogger, are you participating in April A-Z this year? If so, have you already started preparing? If not, do you anticipate beginning to prep soon? Will you blog ahead for this event?
If you aren't a blogger (or aren't participating in April A-Z), are there any situations in which you have spent too much time prepping or worrying and not enough time actually enjoying an experience?
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