You don’t throw up your hands and run out of the lab. What you do is you identify the procedure and what went wrong and then correct it. If you think of [writing] simply as information, you can get closer to success.
This tip from Morrison addresses what I think is the hardest part of self-editing, disassociating yourself from your own work. She advises to take a clinical approach and try to identify the problem and use that information to fix your work.
magine it, create it. Don’t record and editorialize on some event that you’ve already lived through. I was always amazed at how effective that was. They were always out of the box when they were given license to imagine something wholly outside their existence.
It definitely makes sense that imagining something new and writing about it would be more fun and interesting than just recording a past experience. If you write something new, the possibilities are limitless.
You don’t know necessarily how tall they are, because I don’t want to force the reader into seeing what I see. It’s like listening to the radio as a kid. I had to help, as a listener, put in all of the details. It said “blue,” and I had to figure out what shade. Or if they said it was one way, I had to see it. It’s a participatory thing.
"it's a participatory thing", I think this is why am I Toni Morrison fan. She always uses such beautiful description to paint a clear enough picture in your head, but she doesn't give you too much description where you're drowning in it. This is advice that I wish I'd realized sooner.
I used to get up before sunrise. I’m very, very smart in the morning, and everything is clear. By noon it’s over. Then as the day wore on, I got dumber and dumber. That used to be my habit. I thought I did it because I had small children and I wanted to write before they got up. But then when they grew, I was still doing it and still preferring it. Not anymore because I’m too old. I’m 83, so some of those habits have changed.
I found this to be funny because I'm the exact opposite. Trying to wake me before sunrise is impossible, and I don't reach full capacity until the afternoon. This is a useful observation from Morrison though, how she used to write so early mostly because it fit around her and her children's schedules so nicely. However, she later finds out that writing during those early hours synced well with her ability to write and be creative. It definitely helps to be aware of your own routine, and when being creative and productive comes the easiest.