improvising

because I didn't get the Daily Prompt weekly mail, but I checked what the prompts were and couldn't find any that inspired me. So I'm using my blogger friends as inspiration for this post.

First is Mike Finn with his post blogging into silence. This is my first public blog (and the private one wasn't updated very often anyway) and therefore I can't compare. If I check the stats, I can see a growth in readership, but I'm totally at loss in guessing which posts will get comments. Like Mike, I don't have a political agenda. I'm not trying to sell anything either, although I'm chronicling my adventures in indie publishing – but hey, if you don't hit that "buy now" button, I won't hate you. You're still my very welcome reader and I'm glad you keep coming back to this blog.

And like Mike, I need to write, but I've developed a hunger to be read as well. Well, he says it all, so if you haven't checked the link yet, do it now. See, you don't even have to back up! ;-) So what's the point of this blog? I've written for myself long enough not to give up only because I don't have readers. I'll keep writing anyway. I'm like a pulp fiction author, except I don't write pulp fiction. I write fast and furious, be it a blog post or a short story or a novel. I need to pour it out. So there you have it. Welcome to my crazy blog.

Which links to Loralee's post of edit, revise or obliterate, where she wonders how your writing process works. Mine doesn't change much from blogging to writing novels. I sometimes rewrite some stories because a beta-reader pointed at a problem that puts my brain in motion and I have to change things around. Or, like for the historical novel, I find new stuff when researching and decide to use it – hence I had to rewrite entire scenes since the screenplay version for the novel, but that kind of writing is new to me. I'm usually writing off the seat of my pants and have very loose outlines for that reason. I love to improvise, but sometimes those improvisations don't make much sense, so I have to get back to them and edit.

I've learned to limit the number of rewrites, though. I might lose sight of what the story was if I tweak it too much. For Air, I had a big sheet where I put the storyline of the first (Italian) version next to the following versions on columns, and tried to stick to the first one as much as possible (considering I have added a major character in the English version who wasn't present in the original). The first draft might suck in its form, but it's probably the most genuine, so I try not to tweak it too much these days…

But then, that's what works for me. Each writer is different and has different creation patterns and a different mind – thank God for diversity! :-)