I actually did it! I just sent a draft of 16 pages to my supervisor. In the past, I have not been good at sharing drafts. To be honest, in the past I've never written drafts. That's right - never! Usually I just sit down, write up an outline, and then kind of fill in the blanks with paragraphs. I remember back in junior high language arts, we would have to submit a rough draft and then revise it and then revise it again. I struggled with that so much. I said what I wanted to say the first time - I never saw a need for revisions. So I never really learned how to revise my work. This time it has to be different, and it's only now that I am starting to accept that it's okay that I won't get it all right the first time. The important thing is getting ideas down on paper. And I moved beyond that this week. I started with a decent outline (the ideas on paper), and I turned it into what I think is a decent draft. The16 pages I came up with is a draft of a section of one of my chapters. It's probably a third of the chapter, but a stand-alone section in and of itself. Next writing goal is to complete that chapter. I'm looking forward to my supervisor's feedback. He's tough, as in he has high standards, but he doesn't make me feel like crap when he challenges my ideas. He's been reminding me over and over again that I don't need to send him "perfect" writing, that drafts are okay. I think he will be surprised to see an e-mail from me with an actual attachment! Anyway, time to breathe... or wash the dishes and make the bed anyway. And enjoy some butter pecan soy ice cream!
1 comment:
That was the hardest part for me as well! And I always struggled with submitting drafts in middle and high school, too.
It's particularly hard when the work is so personal and so much of you is invested in it. It's hard not to want to strive for perfection and then be stuck staring at a blank screen because you're worried that what you've written isn't perfect.
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