Killing off more writing myths

[gavintonks]

I agree if you have a concept and the understanding of a genre and a formula for writing then a professional could churn out mills and boon stuff[or the odd best seller].
To have a formula in your mind and carefully choose the words as you write and not just put down text could fulfill the outline of one off manuscripts, but I think part of the frustration of writing is asking yourself is this the best you can do and challenging yourself to see that the scene is from the best and most exciting perspective for your reader and for my part requires re-looking at the text a few times.

 

[EMoon]

My first drafts of novels are usually huge and messy...I throw *everything* into them and sort it out later. Since I don't outline (anything but essays) I don't know what the story's really going to be until a long way into it and even then I need to see the end before doing anything to the earlier parts. Then I go back and prune the things that didn't work out, the dead ends, the long conversations that didn't lead anywhere, make sure things are in the right order (they're often not, in first draft, because of how my supposed mind "works") and make sure that the transitions are clear to the reader...and that I haven't forgotten that Calvin died in chapter 8 so he can't be creeping through a tunnel in chapter 9. Because my books tend to be large and often come in groups there's checking of timelines, locations, names (Calvin can't be Kelvin in one chapter) and characterization (Calvin can't change behavior and speech patterns abruptly for no reason)...all that continuity stuff. And when that's done...they're better. Some of my editors have been more...um...understanding of my process if they never got to see a first draft, just a later one. They may still think more needs to be trimmed but at least they can then see what I was aiming for.

 

[Annoyingkid]

It depends on the writer. Some find that rewriting helps them improve their stories dramatically, while others feel it kills the fire and passion they had when they first wrote the story.

You write with all that fire and passion and allow your first draft to suck. The next question is, can you see the best variation from that position or do you just see a variation that allows the scene to work? Are you really going through line by line, scene by scene looking for the best way? My most frequent complaint when reading writing posted online is: I have the information you want to tell me, I know what the characters are doing, what they have to do and why they're doing it. Fine. But I'm not entertained. I'm not wowed. I'm not engrossed. When I read something I want to think it's clever. I want to see voice. I want to see the writer's eccentricties. I want every single scene to be setting up something else, every line to have subtext, telling us something about the character and the setting. Instead of "Just get to the finish and from there patch it up". I can tell from what I'm reading on writing forums that this is what's happening, and I don't like it. Writing becomes art when it rises above the functional. There's no easy ride. To be good, we have to think and think hard.

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