I have a deplorable memory. This sometimes works in my favor because I can read the same book or see a movie twice and be surprised both times...As posted earlier, I completed the edits for Design by Destiny last week and when I was reviewing little bits here and there, I would get a real chuckle out of some of the dialogue, prompting me to think Did I write that, or did my editor change the original, cause that's good! Then I'd flip through my binder which housed the original manuscript and sure-'nuff, it was mine. But I don't remember writing it! I don't remember using that word, and I'm not even sure I know what it means!
And there wasn't just one instance, I'm embarrassed to say, there were no less than THREE.
There was one phrase in particular that had me stumped and if someone said, "You wrote this, Wylie Kinson" I would argue on my life that I hadn't.
There was a scene that I added in the revise and resubmit stage that I completely and entirely forgot was in there until I re-read it during edits.
Gah! - I just didn't think a spliff or two in college could do so much damage! ;)
Does anyone else experience this? Maybe I'm being possessed by another personality when I write? Then again, I do write as Wylie Kinson and edit as the read as the real me...
Ah - yet another reason I write under a pseudonym... so the white-coat people can't get me :)
3 comments:
That's happened to me, too, and yes, it's a weird feeling.
I'm experiencing it in a particularly strange way, rewriting a novel I'd completed three years ago in its original form. As I work on the rewrites, I happen on passages in the original and think, "Did I write that...?" And sometimes I ask myself in a good way but sometimes it's in a bad way, and if it's in a bad way, my response to myself is, who cares, I need to fix it! :)
I get that too, but it's usually the reverse. "I wrote THAT?!?" Crap, what am I doing.
But then I usually find something nice and I'm really happy with it again.
I have problems. :)
You see, I don't have those 'forget-the-crap' moments. I always remember the crappy bits I write! It's just the good stuff that surprises me ;D
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