When it Rains it Snows: When It's Time to Move On to a New Writing Project

I was thinking this morning about the rain, especially when my grandson complained about having to wear a coat.

Not just a jacket, but a coat.

Photo by: clickclique, courtesy of Flickr

And I told him that in the mountains it's worse. There's snow.

Well, I'm a firm believer that if an 8 year old has to choose between rain and snow, they'll probably choose snow. So perhaps his complaint is valid.

Photo by: @Doug88888, courtesy of Flickr

I just need to remember to listen.

It might be raining for awhile, and snowing up in the mountains for a bit, and I may (can you believe it?) keep working on that piece of writing until all that's left is dry cement.

So maybe I'm getting a little ahead of myself. And perhaps I'm as clear as mud.

So let me explain.

As writers we might be perfectionists. We might think that if we go over our work 50 times, that the 50th draft will be better than the 5th.

Probably not.

There's something to be said for creative genius, and not having everything so squeaky clean perfect the we miss the poetry, the nuances, the flat out strange stuff that we really need to leave in.

Now, I'm not talking about a million miss-spellings, or a dozen awkward paragraphs. What I'm trying to get across is the importance of not letting go of your voice.

That's right. Your voice.

You don't want to sound like another writer. You don't want your writing to be so tight that readers can't breathe.

You don't want it to snow, when the rain will do just fine.

Get my drift? (Sorry, I couldn't resist).

In the game of writing, a writer needs to know when it's time to quit.

Like now, for example.