{"id":1015,"date":"2014-10-28T12:25:05","date_gmt":"2014-10-27T23:25:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/?p=1015"},"modified":"2014-11-27T17:12:20","modified_gmt":"2014-11-27T04:12:20","slug":"if-at-first-you-dont-succeed-start-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/?p=1015","title":{"rendered":"If at first you don\u2019t succeed, start again"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"wastebasket\"<\/a>Not everything you write is worth your reader\u2019s reading.<\/p>\n

Most writers, having toiled over a piece of prose, are reluctant to admit that, sometimes, what they have written is simply not good enough.\u00a0 Perhaps it doesn\u2019t say what they need it to say.\u00a0 Or perhaps it doesn\u2019t say it very clearly or concisely.<\/p>\n

But the writer has already invested time and effort in this piece of sub-standard communication.\u00a0 She has written it; she has reviewed it; she has tweaked it (often several times); and now time is running out.\u00a0 The deadline that had once seemed comfortably distant is now scarily close.<\/p>\n

What to do?<\/p>\n

In my experience there are only two things worth trying.\u00a0 The first is to get someone who hasn\u2019t been involved in the writing or tweaking to review it.\u00a0 Sometime a fresh pair of eyes will be able to quickly spot what\u2019s right and what\u2019s wrong.\u00a0 And, hopefully, what\u2019s wrong can be quickly put right.<\/p>\n

The second option is to start again with a clean sheet of paper.\u00a0 Unfortunately, many writers are reluctant to consider this second option.\u00a0 But, in my experience, the sooner you start again the better.\u00a0 And it does need to be a clean sheet of paper.\u00a0 Don\u2019t try and work over the old version.\u00a0 Don\u2019t try to save what you thought were \u2018the good bits\u2019.\u00a0 That\u2019ll just take you back into the unsuccessful past.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, as Isaac Bashevis Singer once observed: \u2018the wastebasket is a writer’s best friend.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not everything you write is worth your reader\u2019s reading. Most writers, having toiled over a piece of prose, are reluctant to admit that, sometimes, what they have written is simply not good enough.\u00a0 Perhaps it doesn\u2019t say what they need … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1015"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1015"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1015\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1021,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1015\/revisions\/1021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}