What you wrote about the first draft feeling so pristine, but editing being necessary and producing a better result—it made me wonder how often we get so unnecessarily attached to a "first" (of any kind) that we cling onto it without opening ourselves to the possibility that what comes after can be better or at least as good as the previous version (but more refined). I feel like it's something that must be happening to us all the time, and likely without us even realising it!
I'm sure I'll spend some more time mulling this over, but the first thing that pops up is that I want to be more mindful of staying open to what the future might hold. Thanks for the thought-provoking essay! :)
Those are some excellent takeaways! It's difficult to imagine a 'better' version (by some metric) of something we create, I think, because if we were already in the position to imagine that better version, we would have made it that way in the first place. The next step (which isn't obvious) is to reimagine that 'finished' project as actually the beginning of something new; it's not the finished sculpture, it's the raw marble that we can now start chipping and polishing into its eventual, final form.
What you wrote about the first draft feeling so pristine, but editing being necessary and producing a better result—it made me wonder how often we get so unnecessarily attached to a "first" (of any kind) that we cling onto it without opening ourselves to the possibility that what comes after can be better or at least as good as the previous version (but more refined). I feel like it's something that must be happening to us all the time, and likely without us even realising it!
I'm sure I'll spend some more time mulling this over, but the first thing that pops up is that I want to be more mindful of staying open to what the future might hold. Thanks for the thought-provoking essay! :)
Those are some excellent takeaways! It's difficult to imagine a 'better' version (by some metric) of something we create, I think, because if we were already in the position to imagine that better version, we would have made it that way in the first place. The next step (which isn't obvious) is to reimagine that 'finished' project as actually the beginning of something new; it's not the finished sculpture, it's the raw marble that we can now start chipping and polishing into its eventual, final form.
Hey Colin - What's the writing program you screenshotted?
Scrivener! The app I use to write all my books :)