Fixing Mistakes With Christopher Paolini

I’ve got four rewrites on Book One of The Last Sparkling. Presently, I’m working on Chapter 14’s rewrite, and it’s taking some serious concentration and strength. Right now, I just want to use the old chapter and completely ignore it, maybe even rewrite some of the chapter and use a whole chunk of the old one to compensate for words. Nonetheless, I can’t help but recall a short segment of an interview I watched with Christopher Paolini. He was talking about writers and said that our mistakes (e.g., a bad chapter, a bad sentence, or even a poor word choice) aren’t the deciding factor between good and bad writers. Rather, he said the difference is whether or not you choose to go back and fix your mistakes. I’ve gotta say I agree with him, and here’s why: if we let our writing carelessly drift off without fixing it, we’d never grow in our craft. You wouldn’t ever learn to spot the mistakes BEFORE you’re all the way down the road (or else you’ll get some grueling rewrites like me). I believe the more you repair your mistakes in writing, the less you’ll make those mistakes in the future—or you’ll at least learn to identify them quickly.

P.S. This makes me consider reading The Inheritance Cycle. I’ve only ever read the first book, Eragon.

As always, best wishes!