Everyday Canvas

Prevention with Planning instead of aThousand Rewrites

PROMPT: Complete the following common saying with an ending different than the original line...and then come up with a meaning for it or its origin: "An ounce of prevention is worth _____

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An ounce of prevention is worth a thousand rewrites.

If we think about and prepare for what we are going to write, we won’t end up having to edit and revise our work far too many times, otherwise.

I am saying this because I am at heart a pantser. Granted, pantsing is a lot more fun than planning a piece, but at the end of the day, is it worth the amount of time and disappointment in myself when my efforts turn sour?

Much better writers than me usually plan a lot and even write minutely detailed outlines. Given my writing personality, however, I can’t push myself to write such outlines. Yet, knowing the main points of what I’ll write about does help me.

For example, NaNo Prep does train my wild writing spirit, and surprisingly, its questions do not restrict my imagination. Best yet, I can use the prep to fit my needs. This may give me some prevention from having rotten work that is left unfinished or finished with dire results.

I know after some planning, I can still leave some loose ends to fool around with. Even if a rewrite or two will be needed, at least it won’t be in the hundreds or thousands in number, and believe me, I have quite a few things in my port that need a thousand rewrites, not to mention an unfinished novel that needs to be thrown away or redone from the start.