Laura
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
I've been watching Building Great Sentences by The Great Courses. It's diverting, but some illustrations leave my head spinning. My question is... when writing a first draft, do you consider sentence construction (cumulative vs periodic vs other structures) or do you simply put the story out, to be revised later. Do your sentences find their final structure instinctively or are they nudged into shape later on?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I do revise while writing, but it's so practiced by now that I hardly have to think about it. The unit-of-attention is more the paragraph than the sentence, however, as its shape drives what the sentences within it need to be. Sentences don't exist in isolation, after all. (Well, not in prose fiction.) Beyond that, what I consider the real work-unit for me is the scene. I usually need to have the whole scene blocked out before I can start writing.
I have a visual imagination. First I have to think of the picture/movie of what I'm trying to get down; then, when it is fairly clear in my mind and captured in rough notes, the words to describe it follow, floating up out of wherever they are assembled in my brain. Some of this happens as part of outlining, some later. It feels spontaneous at this stage, but it's actually not, as it doesn't happen without a great deal of pre-writing thought/work. Tidying the words follows that. (It could hardly precede it, after all.)
The amount of tidying needed varies. (Sometimes, I get it right the first time!) Micro-editing tends to include winkling out word echoes, unknotting less-than-ideal syntax, and improving word choice. When I change the actual events being described, I no longer consider it micro-editing, but most of that gets done at the prior scene-outline stage.
I do some nudging on the fly as I write, some later on during one of the many rereads. If the story is flowing out hot, I pause less.
Ta, L.
I do revise while writing, but it's so practiced by now that I hardly have to think about it. The unit-of-attention is more the paragraph than the sentence, however, as its shape drives what the sentences within it need to be. Sentences don't exist in isolation, after all. (Well, not in prose fiction.) Beyond that, what I consider the real work-unit for me is the scene. I usually need to have the whole scene blocked out before I can start writing.
I have a visual imagination. First I have to think of the picture/movie of what I'm trying to get down; then, when it is fairly clear in my mind and captured in rough notes, the words to describe it follow, floating up out of wherever they are assembled in my brain. Some of this happens as part of outlining, some later. It feels spontaneous at this stage, but it's actually not, as it doesn't happen without a great deal of pre-writing thought/work. Tidying the words follows that. (It could hardly precede it, after all.)
The amount of tidying needed varies. (Sometimes, I get it right the first time!) Micro-editing tends to include winkling out word echoes, unknotting less-than-ideal syntax, and improving word choice. When I change the actual events being described, I no longer consider it micro-editing, but most of that gets done at the prior scene-outline stage.
I do some nudging on the fly as I write, some later on during one of the many rereads. If the story is flowing out hot, I pause less.
Ta, L.
More Answered Questions
Joseph Clark
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
In "Komarr", Ekaterin notes that Nikki's Vorzohn's Dystrophy would make him ineligible to be a jump pilot. Miles also notes this. But when Nikki is given the retrogenes, are we to assume they were successfully assimilated, and that Nikki is going to become a jump pilot eventually?
Paul Mirel
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
Hi Lois! My sister and I love your books so much! We feel like the extended Vorkosigan family are our friends! I had the delight to meet Tal Danino, who is almost Cetegandan! He creates genetically engineered bacteria that phosphoresce in a synchronized way. It reminds me so much of the tree frogs that sing in chords! I recommend him to you! Do you know of his work?
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