Comments on: Motivation #6

By: dwsmith

dwsmith — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 17:59:32 +0000

Angelia, the changes either take no time at all, meaning an afternoon for a full novel, or Kris says, “No.” and I toss the book away and write it again, which is new writing. (called redrafting) Luckily, Kris has only said “No.” a couple times on short stories and only once on a novel. About the same number of times I’ve said it to her, actually. Our rule is that nothing leaves that would embarrass us.

The critique Kris hates is when I hand back a story and say, “It’s great. Mail it. It will win awards.” Honestly, she hates that because she always feels, like all of us do, that everything she writes is bad and she thinks that when I say that, I’m just being nice. Not kidding. And I have been correct most of the time about the awards. She hates it worst when I hand back a short story and say “Mail it, then write the novel.”

Kris’s fixes on my stuff tend to be wrong words spelled correctly. In one of the Men in Black novels, the bad guys are flowering plum trees. All the way through the book I had them as flowering plume trees. I have yet to live that one down.

Sorry I didn’t understand your question. Doing a fix draft takes no time 99% of the time and I never think to factor it in anywhere.

Cheers
Dean

By: Angelia Almos

Angelia Almos — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 15:41:53 +0000

Okay, I guess I phrased my question wrong. You had mentioned in previous posts about sending off to a beta reader and making changes based on their feedback (that you agree with) before sending it out to editors and also in another post about making notes as you do your first draft on changes you might need to make and implementing those notes when you spell check. That was what I was asking about, do these changes/fixes just not take you anytime so you don’t factor that in to your production time?

By: G D Townshende

G D Townshende — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 01:30:52 +0000

If you feel you must outline every book, then try this: Type in a title, type the first sentence, and then the next and the next and just see where it goes. Why not? Afraid of failing? Have you ever tried it that way?

I’ve often started with just a title, or just a sentence, and then spun off from there. Earlier this year, however, I tried outlining a short story. Nothing very detailed. I did a Google search, came up with some good stuff from selling writers, used those as guidelines, wrote an outline that very night. Six days later, I’d completed an 8500 word short story. Now I just need to find a market that will take a story that long. Most I’ve found won’t.

I found, though, that outlining works just as well for me as not, and sometimes it works better. The novel I’m writing now I didn’t outline. I started that one just as I’ve started the majority of stories I’ve ever written, with a scene, or a character, or something that intrigued me and caught my interest, and went on from there. That novel’s now at nearly 45,000 words. If it runs 90,000 words, I should have it finished by Jan 23, as I’m now writing 2000 words per day regularly.

One interesting thing that’s been happening lately is that I’ll wake up from a dream and I’ll lay there half-asleep, thinking about what I’ve been dreaming. Sometimes I find there an idea for the start of a story; sometimes I won’t. More recently, though, I’ve found that I’ve awakened with an entire outline staring me in my drowsy face. So, I roll over, write it down before I forget it, then drift back off to sleep. When I finally get out of bed, I take my Moleskine to my desk, read what I’ve written, then type it up on my computer, and file it away in a folder where I’ve been saving notes for story ideas.

By: dwsmith

dwsmith — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 23:13:12 +0000

They are just ahead of #3, which means more than likely you have to hit the previous page button at the bottom to go back to them. Thanks for the nice comments. Cheers, Dean

By: Liza

Liza — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 22:28:43 +0000

Gosh. I’m not even sure how I got here–a click on a link and bam–concrete and direct suggestions that tell me it’s OK to do this a step at a time, my way, the way that works for me. Don’t look at the elephant. Sift it down to the manageable details. Plod along, one step after another. Define your goals. Don’t quit. Then, send it, send it, send it. Outstanding! Maybe I don’t have to take a class to learn how to outline–maybe I still will, but maybe I don’t have to. Maybe I can write it all out, spill it onto the page the way it comes, the way it has started to arrive recently, keeping me awake at night, fascinating me by what my brain conjures up. Perhaps I simply have to KEEP WRITING. And do the math. And never be afraid to fail.

This post (and 3, 4, and 5…couldn’t find 1 and 2) have been invaluable to me. Thank you!

By: dwsmith

dwsmith — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 21:18:03 +0000

Angelia, you didn’t read much of this, did you? I follow Heinlein’s Rules. I always have and always will. So not a clue as to what you are talking about with rewriting/editing my work and why that would take time. Why would I do that? I am the worst judge of my own work. I can edit someone else’s work without an issue, but my own, never. I just screw it up and my attitude is that if I don’t get it right (except for a few details) on the first pass, I need to toss that away and just write it fresh again.

A manuscript is just a tool. You’re trying to build a house while constantly reworking and redesigning your hammer. Doesn’t get much of a house built doing that.

The question came from a very deep place in the rewrite myth. Only original work is writing. Nothing else is writing.

Cheers
Dean

By: Angelia Almos

Angelia Almos — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 15:58:13 +0000

Okay, so if rewriting isn’t writing, do you write something new (to meet your word count goals) the same days you are rewriting/editing your work? Or do you do the rewriting/editing during the down days that you scheduled in? Just curious.