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words by hand
Dec. 21st, 2010 01:24 pmOne thing that writing by hand makes difficult is determining how far you get in a day.
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bracing yourself
Dec. 17th, 2010 01:38 amSometimes you have to brace yourself before a scene, to write, or to revise. Draw back, take a deep breath, and then plunge in.
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stick a fork into it
Dec. 3rd, 2010 08:59 pmSo you outline the story, write the first draft, let it sit on the backburner, revise it, let it sit some more, revise it again, send it out to friends for opinions, revise it again. . . .
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backburner
Nov. 27th, 2010 06:15 pmThe approaching conclusion of NaNoWriMo inspires philosophical musings about the backburner.
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meditations on vacuuming the cat
Aug. 22nd, 2010 11:52 pmI've got a full list of things that really have to be done before I get writing. I suppose most writers do.
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reading vs writing
Jun. 28th, 2010 12:56 amYou have to read if you're a writer. For all sorts of reasons, from fun to keeping up with the field to stealing acquiring ideas from other stories.
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pondering the use of rules of style
May. 17th, 2010 11:08 pmPhilosophically contemplating all the rules of style you usually hear propounded --
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n Rules of Writing
Mar. 1st, 2010 09:35 pmn to be determined at the end of the post. . . .
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sartorias Who got it from burger_eater)
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fat vs. lean
Sep. 18th, 2009 09:43 pmWrite fat and revise lean. Which is say, if you know you need one telling detail at one point, but not which of two (or three, or four) telling details is best, write them all. And when you revise, you can chose which one is best in cold blood.
It is, however, somewhat depressing to realize that sometimes you have to revise fat and then revise again lean, because the critiques complained about not enough of the setting and back story, and it's a little too difficult to juggle figuring out where you could put it and where you should put it at once. Best to figure out the locations and then chose one. sigh
It is, however, somewhat depressing to realize that sometimes you have to revise fat and then revise again lean, because the critiques complained about not enough of the setting and back story, and it's a little too difficult to juggle figuring out where you could put it and where you should put it at once. Best to figure out the locations and then chose one. sigh
juggling plot threads, continued
Jun. 19th, 2009 10:16 pmOf course, there are times when it is easy to drop one thread and move to the next. That is, when the thread hasn't caught on fire.
So I sit staring at the sheet of paper trying to figure what any of them are doing. Even when all -- let's see, both sets of knights, the royal official and his men, the sorceress/thief and the band of sorceresses, and the cultists -- six factions all started out with clearly defined motives that are passionately desired.
Fortunately what this story smells of is dramatic irony, so I have the prompt: who could woefully mistake what someone else is up to? And the side-issue of keeping all six of them yoked together into the same story helps. And that I know there are two more factions involved, so I can herd them all toward where they can hook up with that one.
So I sit staring at the sheet of paper trying to figure what any of them are doing. Even when all -- let's see, both sets of knights, the royal official and his men, the sorceress/thief and the band of sorceresses, and the cultists -- six factions all started out with clearly defined motives that are passionately desired.
Fortunately what this story smells of is dramatic irony, so I have the prompt: who could woefully mistake what someone else is up to? And the side-issue of keeping all six of them yoked together into the same story helps. And that I know there are two more factions involved, so I can herd them all toward where they can hook up with that one.
a bad habit of mine
Mar. 11th, 2009 07:27 pmA bad, bad, bad habit of mine.
Yesterday I dropped the outline I had worked on on Monday and outlined a completely different story. And last night I dropped the story I had been writing on Monday to start the story I just outlined.
It's a bad habit skipping from work to work as inspiration strikes. Very easy to get a pile of stuff that never gets done. You have to train yourself to circle back, and back, and back, and see if the inspiration decided to come back when it was ignored. (And if that doesn't work, sit down one day and re-read the pile. In one swoop. The effect can be startling.)
On the other hand --
Today I finished the outline I worked on Monday.
Which is the sort of thing that keeps me jumping from idea to idea.
Yesterday I dropped the outline I had worked on on Monday and outlined a completely different story. And last night I dropped the story I had been writing on Monday to start the story I just outlined.
It's a bad habit skipping from work to work as inspiration strikes. Very easy to get a pile of stuff that never gets done. You have to train yourself to circle back, and back, and back, and see if the inspiration decided to come back when it was ignored. (And if that doesn't work, sit down one day and re-read the pile. In one swoop. The effect can be startling.)
On the other hand --
Today I finished the outline I worked on Monday.
Which is the sort of thing that keeps me jumping from idea to idea.
further rambles on outlining
Feb. 3rd, 2009 05:55 pmWas working on an outline and pondering the process. . . .
Another thing an English teacher would not approve of in my outlines is -- you know how you are supposed to put things of equivalent importance on the same level? Forget it. Sometimes I write down the details of a dialog exchange, or even a perfect, gemlike line of dialog. Sometimes a scene gets a sentence.
Leads to one less than pleasant consequence: I can't estimate how long a story is based on how long an outline is, except in the loosest terms. A novel outline is longer than a short story one, but I can't really tell how long a short story will be, based on its outline. Or worse, whether it will fall in the Unpublishable Void of lengths, when you can't sell it as a short and can't sell it as novel, and no matter how gem-like in perfection it is, it's not going to get out.
Another thing an English teacher would not approve of in my outlines is -- you know how you are supposed to put things of equivalent importance on the same level? Forget it. Sometimes I write down the details of a dialog exchange, or even a perfect, gemlike line of dialog. Sometimes a scene gets a sentence.
Leads to one less than pleasant consequence: I can't estimate how long a story is based on how long an outline is, except in the loosest terms. A novel outline is longer than a short story one, but I can't really tell how long a short story will be, based on its outline. Or worse, whether it will fall in the Unpublishable Void of lengths, when you can't sell it as a short and can't sell it as novel, and no matter how gem-like in perfection it is, it's not going to get out.
juggling while writing
Oct. 22nd, 2008 08:31 pmOne writing technique I've found useful -- well, a meta-technique -- is don't try juggling your techniques until you've mastered them.
I devised a rule for myself at one point: write fat and revise lean. If I needed one telling detail at one point, and I thought up two, I would write them both down unless one was obviously better than the other. Then I could revise in cold blood. That way, I didn't have to try to be descriptive and judgmental of my own descriptions at once. Much easier than sweating to remember that perfect telling detail that I had discarded in the first draft.
And there was a time when characters wouldn't tell me their motives in the first draft. 'Sokay. I wrote down what they did, and then on the second draft, I put in all their motivations.
Actually, neither rule gets much use now. I find myself writing the stuff all in the first draft. But then, I've had a bit of practice while applying the rules.
I devised a rule for myself at one point: write fat and revise lean. If I needed one telling detail at one point, and I thought up two, I would write them both down unless one was obviously better than the other. Then I could revise in cold blood. That way, I didn't have to try to be descriptive and judgmental of my own descriptions at once. Much easier than sweating to remember that perfect telling detail that I had discarded in the first draft.
And there was a time when characters wouldn't tell me their motives in the first draft. 'Sokay. I wrote down what they did, and then on the second draft, I put in all their motivations.
Actually, neither rule gets much use now. I find myself writing the stuff all in the first draft. But then, I've had a bit of practice while applying the rules.
