Think Before You Type, Think Again Before You Edit, And Think One Last Time Before You Publish

Negativity is a sneaky thing. I nearly succumbed to it earlier when I started a story. As I hammered away at the keyboard, I thought I was the crusading journalist type of writer, but that wasn't the case. I was writing from anger, jealousy, and darkness, which is something I promised I would never do again. Thankfully, I had to stop to do something around the house, so I was horrified when I read through what I had written. I wasn't physically ill, but I almost felt nauseous for a second or two after I finished reading the crap I wrote. I would have noticed the problem eventually, but I was glad I found it when I did. The more time and effort I put into that negative writing, the worse the effect on my mental state would have been.

I forgot my personal first rule for writing: writing from a perspective of positivity and honesty. At least I was 50% correct. I might have been honest when I started writing, but I never found the positive approach I wanted. The world is already fucked-up enough without me adding to the misery. I was jealous, and that is never a place to write from. I should be, and always try to be, happy about the success of others, provided that they don't harm others in the process, but I was simply jealous and bitter. I understand the basics of Stoicism and that things are neither good nor bad; the way we interpret and use them makes them so. I used personal examples of why I was jealous of someone else, violating another principle I try to live by. Their success. doesn't equate to my failure; the two are unrelated.

Basically, I wrote that story like I was in some type of bizarro world where everything was the opposite of what I believed. If I had read what I wrote without knowing I had written it, I would have blocked that person immediately because of the negative energy pouring from the screen. I became what I despised for a few minutes, which upset me.

The lesson is always to take time when writing; there is nothing so important that it cannot wait for one minute. I am glad I took the time to break my train of thought because that let me see how terrible I had become earlier. I felt rushed when I wrote that first time; that is another lesson I took from the experience. There is always time to do good work. A book about writing said that the first draft is always the one to trash because it is an emotional statement, like Dr. McCoy in Star Trek. All emotion is not the best way to approach anything in life. The second draft is the Spock version because our response is to entirely rewrite whatever the first draft says. The third version is Kirk, which blends the first two into a complete product, taking the best of both. Like any good story, it takes time to go through the process because each draft requires a total reset of the thought process. After the first version, editing becomes essential. Never question your first draft until you finish. Repeat that process with the second draft and then with the third. By then, you have a complete story.

I found my error after my first draft. I realized I couldn't produce anything sustainable from that first draft, so I discarded it. That happens from time to time. I used my filters, and they saved me from a terrible story I would have been ashamed of had I published it.

Be kind to each other.