Corpus Press: Horror and Weird Fiction discussion
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Evans Light
The Writing Process
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Wow, incredible insights you've got here, Evans! And the Joe Hill link is amazing! Thank you so much for sharing!:)
I'm so happy to see that you've joined!
Thanks Dustin......I'm happy to be a member!
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Adam wrote: "Welcome, Holly! Happy to see you here.":)
Unbelievably true, although I prefer not to think of my revision process as work. I try to think of them as "dates." Getting the rough draft out is like the first date, where you touch on all the superficial stuff, and subsequent revisions are second, third, fourth,etc...dates. In those, you build relationships, conflict, and clean up messes. :) When I revise, I get intimate with the story in a way that I wasn't previously. It's like when you get into an argument, and wish you'd said what you meant a different way...I get the opportunity to do that in the revision process. I don't know if that makes sense to people reading it, but it's my approach. Although, I'm constantly reading about how to make it easier (on my way to Joe's article now.).
Interesting approach:)
Anne wrote: "Unbelievably true, although I prefer not to think of my revision process as work. I try to think of them as "dates." Getting the rough draft out is like the first date, where you touch on all the..."Fascinating, Anne! Thank you for sharing.:)
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That's actually a nice way to think of the process. Takes the pressure off to try do everything right the first time, or to even think you can rush things to a quality state. A good relationship takes time to develop. Thanks for sharing!
Evans wrote: "Anne wrote: "Unbelievably true, although I prefer not to think of my revision process as work. I try to think of them as "dates." Getting the rough draft out is like the first date, where you tou..."Nicely said, Evans.
Anne wrote: "Y'all are all welcome!":)
I like to think of the 1st draft as my outline. It usually takes me no more than 3 weeks to write a 1st draft, up to 350 pages. A first draft is usually 65% dialogue, and everything else is for pacing, chapter breaks and such. Then, after it's done, the real work begins. Many, many months of reshaping and editing.
Anton wrote: "I like to think of the 1st draft as my outline. It usually takes me no more than 3 weeks to write a 1st draft, up to 350 pages. A first draft is usually 65% dialogue, and everything else is for pac..."Holy smokes, a rough draft in 3 weeks, really!??!!
I don't now if that was an original thought from him or a well-known axiom, but truer words have not been spoken, at least not on the subect of writing.
I estimate that for any given writing project I work on, less than 20% of the time spent is dedicated to the first draft - the really fun part. The other 80% is pure, unadulterated work, cleaning up those thousands of sentences and shaping page after page into something worth reading.
Any way you cut it, it's WORK, and probably the reason why so many aspiring writers never make it past a growing stack of first drafts; rewriting all that stuff takes time, a lot more of it than it took to make it in the first place.
For some, finishing up a decent first draft is satisfaction enough. For others, I recommend the following article, by author Joe Hill, on the art of rewriting.
http://joehillfiction.com/2011/07/pou...
The process he describes parallels my own experience as a writer, with the exception of completely rewriting from scratch everything. I do the editing of my third draft line-by-line as well, but if a section or sentence is good, I try to leave it alone (even though it does seem that I eventually end up rewriting the whole damn thing several times over before I'm satisfied!)
If all the rewriting has you discouraged as you try to get to a finished product, all I've got to say is this: get used to it.
Writing is fun, rewriting is WORK. And it's not about writing, it's about REWRITING.
-Evans Light, January 2013