“I find that discussing an idea before I’ve written it is often the best way to kill it stone-dead.” – J. K. Rowling
Doesn’t it sound too obvious? I’ve known this since like… forever? Discussing about an idea with anybody else prior to writing it and push the wildest imagination to the point of exhaustion is such a foolish suicide committed by any novice writers, whether they be bloggers, fiction authors, non-fiction authors, or even creative web copywriters.
On writing Harry Potter, Rowling herself admitted that never did she let her drafts read by anyone else before getting done. Afterwards, she allowed only her editor (and maybe her husband, Neil Murray) to scrutinize the drafts. She stated this before the audience of the publication of “The Casual Vacancy” at David H. Koch Theater.
That being said, I can directly relate that to myself who happens to be one of the haters of anything called “writers club” where several writers mingle and chat and discuss. That doesn’t particularly work for me. I feel like I was born free, so was my mind. So I need to free myself too while writing, setting aside any of those unwanted foreign influences (because some external influences are wanted to enrich ourselves).
Sounds too lenient uh? Wait until the editing comes. “Write freely, and edit cruelly,” that’s all I can say when you really want to produce a great piece of work for readers out there.
It seems that, sometimes, writers tend to be quieter, which probably helps a lot. I imagine that if we were constantly talking about our projects, we would never get the chance to actually write them. And, as you say, if we talked all the time, maybe we wouldn’t even want to write it after talking it over too much and letting it escape prematurely.
–JW
You did make a point. I talk less as an individual and that to some extent helps me to get more focused. 🙂