Oct. 9: Incubation

In today's reading the author likens the first draft of a story or book to an egg. He states that just as a egg needs to incubate for the embryo to develop our writing needs to do the same thing. He recommends that after you finish a first draft you let the project set for awhile. How long depends of several things such as how emotionally spent the writer is after they finish. He also suggests that you shift to another work in progress while setting the first draft aside then when you pick it up again you read through it slowly and make notes then set it aside for another "incubation" period and again slowly read through it again. The try this section today is just that process. Completing a draft then letting it incubate twice, reading it after each incubation period making notes regarding any revisions. He stated that this is necessary to acquire critical distance which is best done by turning your mind to another project. So without knowing it, I have been doing thing. I am currently working of four primary projects with a few others thrown in. I work on one for awhile and put it down, then I turn my attention to another one. Often I turn my attention back to one of the four as part of a daily "try this" idea.