Write. Write. Write and Rewrite.

In the process of writing, something that is both very important, and sometimes extremely debilitating is rewriting.

First of all, rewriting is important, necessary in most cases. The first draft should be information dump. You want to get everything out on the page so you don’t miss all the amazing parts of your imagination. For a creative writer it’s important to get the information from the imaginary to the physical. Now that it’s on paper, or computer, now’s the time to make it make sense. For the writer the story seems great, but more often then not a reread of what you’ve put down will reveal plot holes, grammar mistakes, items important in the beginning disappear, etc.

Writing is a unique art. Unlike painting or music it’s much harder to get a look at the big picture. Painters can take a step back, musicians can listen through their track, but writer’s have to go back and reread everything, but what’s worse we have to separate our brain reading the story the way we meant it to be read to reading it how we’ve written it.

It would be the equivalent of a painter painting a portion of a picture. They rush through each section, realizing they’ve made mistakes, but their not sure exactly how they want the picture to look yet. Once they finish they step back and see each section put together in one big picture. It looks horrible, the sections don’t go together, there are color’s within each section that don’t match the flow.

Rewriting is essential.

On the other hand, rewriting can be the ending. When writing poetry, or a short story, rewriting isn’t much of a chore. When it only takes a minute or too to read through what’s been written in a few hours you can edit and rewrite multiple times, but for a novel. When your verging on 70 to 80 thousand words rewriting can take months. The craziest part is the time is a small reason rewriting is so crippling.

Everyone wants their story to come out perfectly. Like the painter we can see every stroke that doesn’t match, every section that doesn’t quite line up how we wanted it to. It’s only us though. As the artist we can see the whole of what we’ve created vs what we wanted, but our audience only see’s the art. If the perfectionist bug bites you while creating a story, you’ll never finish. With novels by the time you halfway through a rewrite you’ve already learned a lot making the edits at the beginning of your book outdated.

Rewriting is important, but it can’t take over. At some point the rewriting needs to end. The best way is getting the words in front of a chosen audience who can help you know if the story is being understood how you would like it to be. Rewriting makes the difference between organized thoughts and dreams that are a foggy image that fades before we have a chance to remember it.

Writer’s block, writer’s block. Always got writer’s block!

Writer’s block is a funny thing. I think when we hear that short phrase we immediately think, creativity block. Writer’s block is more than that. Writer’s block is when you’ve written, then gotten occupied with life, so now when you return to your project you’re wondering how it all fits together again. Writer’s block is when you’re not quite sure how the story is meant to move forward. Writer’s block is when you realize your grammar is terrible and you feel like you’ll never create something tangible to anyone but yourself.

This blog is part of overcoming the last stumbling block. I’m not afraid to admit that although I struggle with grammar and often find myself correcting my your’s, there’s, and even too’s, that doesn’t have to stop me. If you’re reading this and you find mistakes, awesome! When you see them and mention them suddenly I learn what mistakes I make quite often. By putting work on the table for others to see it helps improve writing.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve looked at my story and said to myself, “Why would my characters make that decision”. I see it in other books too. That’s a big part of character-building understanding why a character would make certain choices within the story. For me, this often brings up a rewrite. I find myself changing the story to match up with my character’s expectations or with a more logical line of thinking.

For example; In my story there is an injury that occurs the brings my characters to a certain village. Initially, they chose this village because it was the only one with the proper medicine to mend the wound. I spend much time thinking through this and why it had to be so, even creating an entire backstory to the village as to make it look more probable they would have this necessary medicine. Then, like a flash of light, I realized it was common sense for them to head to this village. First off, they are fleeing an enemy, this village is the closest with a healing facility outside their enemies’ jurisdiction. There doesn’t even need to be a second off, it just makes that much sense. Built my own writer’s block for something simple.

The last type of writer’s block I fall into all the time. I’ll be working hard on a chapter, inspiration pouring like a waterfall onto the pages. Then, like a sudden damn has been placed up the river, life hit’s and normal obligations pull me from my chapter. It can’t be helped and most of the time I’m being pulled away by my family who I’m happy to turn away from my computer for any time. Needless to say, my chapter is left unfinished. When I finally return, whether it be a few days or even a few weeks, I’m looking at the story longing for a reminder of what wonderful inspiration I had for it before. This can stop me from writing for weeks. Every time I get to the chapter I worry I’m going to ruin it. Destroy the beautiful picture I had painted in my mind when I had written before.

The good thing is writer’s block never lasts. Sometimes mindless writing, that messes up the story a little, leads into the inspired writing you’re looking for. It breaks that wall and lets the water pour back down onto the pages. If you’re stuck, move forward. I think that’s applicable to almost all things in life, don’t let feeling stuck stop you from moving, because each step helps break away the stiffness in your legs.

Introducing… me

Introducing… Me

The first question you ask yourself when beginning a blog. Why am I doing this? Do I really have something to offer? Is my skill appropriate to tackle it? All these and more bug me as I sit here writing my first blog.


That last statement is not completely true. I’ve begun blogs in the past. Hell, this one might not even stick, although I’m hopeful. The reason I think I’ve failed in the past is expecting too much from it. A blog was always a means to an end, and when that end didn’t come fast enough it was easy to forget about and move on. Now I’m hoping it will be more a means to a beginning.


Writing for me began when I was young. I grew up in a religious family where we took Sunday rest seriously. Video games were off, no movies that did not have religious context, and no going out with friends. Sundays were a day we spent together as a family, even if that spending together was in our beds trying to figure out a way to occupy our minds without our usual media outlets. For me, that was writing.


My story began as a star wars origin story. I’d built this wonderous world where our short green master was once a human that was cursed by someone to eventually become the alien we all recognize from the movies. It was simple, characters all had names that matched the movies, foreshadowing, and there was a wonderful love story between the characters.


I loved writing by hand. I worked hard on my penmanship to have the prettiest words I could create. I look back on it now and can’t read many of the words, especially those that got too fancy. Over the years writing took a back seat to a lot of the other artistic outlets I had. I acted, sang, and even dabbled in drawing. My high school theater was what took up a majority of my time. My biggest problem, I was no good when it came to grammar.


To this day I struggle with my concept of grammar. I’m sure many professionals can barely read this without struggling to break through the many instances of bad grammar. I had to break through that barrier myself, so I keep writing.


Now as a 28-year-old, working for Amazon awaiting my time to begin Air Traffic Controlling I’m writing again. My story has developed into an entire world full of history, culture, and war. I imagine as J. R. R. Tolkien was creating the world of middle-earth he felt the same passion for that world that I do of the one I’ve created. Each day as I develop it more I hope to give these characters a life outside of my laptop. Maybe one day.


For now, I write here. Here I will post my journey as I continue to build this world. I’ll share thoughts of what is shown and what is behind the curtains of the story. How issues of the day are inside the story and even how my beliefs affect the story. Sometimes I’ll even share why I believe a story can contain ideas that are contrary to my personal beliefs.


So, welcome to my journey, and come along if you’d like. I can’t say every moment will be an adventure, but why risk missing out.