Kelly’s Reef, my first novel, is close to finished. After years of re-writing the first 50 pages, my Mentor, Linda Claire, told me to just “junk it out”⎯write the story, then worry about fixing it.
It took all my will power not to fall into the red-dashed underline trap and stop mid-thought to correct a typo. Every time Word screamed at me about what an idiot I am, I stopped, reversed, and compulsively fixed. Then I had to fire up the thought process again and struggle back into “the zone”.
Hint: For the new author, turn off the spell check and grammar check. Let your fingers fly and try to keep up with the story as your mind creates it. No time to polish. No time to fix. Open the gate and let the story flood.
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I like the writing tips, James. It adds to your comments and this one is definitely a good idea, since I always back track if Word tells me I've spelled something wrong, which quickly throws me off of my groove.
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