I have a whopping 6 1/2 minutes before my lunch hour is finished. I recently paired up with (hired) a professional editor who works in the Publishing Industry. (Since I haven't checked with him on blogging about him, I won't say much except that it has been awesome so far.)
Early on in our back-and-forth email fest, he said something that sparked my writing fire.
To preface, it is said over and over, and over again, across nearly all writing resources, that less is more and it is better to show than tell. But when writing, at least as a new writer, it can be difficult to tell when one is showing versus telling. And one can grow attached to one's writing and not want to let it go.
He gave a quick critique of my opening sequence, something I've been nervous about for a variety of reasons. To paraphrase, he said that I did well at narrating, but gave too much information, which can be overwhelming to the reader. Events within the story can show this playing out later.
Really cool information that widened and changed my perception. I was so close to the material that I wasn't seeing the bigger picture like a reader would. So, I've read the first MS again and made mental notes of where I saw this happening and where it plays out (and caught some errors, yikes, that I didn't know were there from when I fixed the auto-tabs, along with some typos - I swear, it doesn't matter how many times I read it...just when I think I've caught everything, I haven't.).
However, this truly helped with my writer's block because once I found that sweet spot in MS #3, I looked at the writing differently and saw exactly why I wasn't happy with it. In my attempts to get notes down about the story, I was telling and then showing what had just been told - redundant as hell. In what spans about eight pages now, I cut more than a thousand words, blended scenes together, and cut whole paragraphs that were unnecessary.
I look forward to working on it and getting it into a place where I can start making progress again. My brain is no longer stuck on that last line, no longer able to plan ahead. I know how this thing ends...and now I'm much better prepared to take it there.
This has been enlightening.
And just because I'm presently emailing a judge who agrees with me on the word...SHENANIGAN!
Yes, that was totally unrelated, and as always, please forgive any typos or whatnot! In a hurry! ^_^
Monday, March 18, 2013
Monday, March 4, 2013
Ug...Writer's Block
I've only suffered from this malediction a few times in my life and all runs were short. This time, however, I may as well have come down with mono, complete with the "hit by a truck" body aches. Ug.
Other bloggers have asked, "What do you do to overcome Writer's Block?" And I've naively said, "I just keep writing."
But it's not that easy. I stare at text on the screen, I plead with my characters to cooperate, I read or edit what I've written in hopes that inspiration will stike...but no. Frustration surfaces and complicates the matter.
My analytic mind wants to know why my fingers aren't magically working the keyboard. I've deduced that my characters aren't in the right mindset and I don't like where they're going. The flow isn't there. The convergence of past and present doesn't meld as well as in previous works.
The "why" of it does matter, but if I think too hard about it, that's all I'll do. And I do think about it...a lot. But thinking isn't the same as writing. Plus, I'm at the point now where my thinking ends with what I have written, so...yeah...is there such a thing as Thinker's Block?
The first three chapters are solid and work well. It all unravels from there. With that in mind, I have to think back to my answer, "I just keep writing." Well, how did I do that in the past?
I opened a new document and wrote on a fresh screen without the influence of the existing material. That's what I need to do. Start anew at the last place that makes me happy and see where it goes.
It's a decent start and doesn't mean I have to scrap what I already have written. If it works in the story, it'll fit in somewhere. But maybe I'm clinging to something that doesn't work and it's time to let it go. And so I will set it free.
To quote Harry and the Hendersons...."Run free Little Bob! Run free!"
^_^' ~ Little Bob is not the name of my WIP...
Other bloggers have asked, "What do you do to overcome Writer's Block?" And I've naively said, "I just keep writing."
But it's not that easy. I stare at text on the screen, I plead with my characters to cooperate, I read or edit what I've written in hopes that inspiration will stike...but no. Frustration surfaces and complicates the matter.
My analytic mind wants to know why my fingers aren't magically working the keyboard. I've deduced that my characters aren't in the right mindset and I don't like where they're going. The flow isn't there. The convergence of past and present doesn't meld as well as in previous works.
The "why" of it does matter, but if I think too hard about it, that's all I'll do. And I do think about it...a lot. But thinking isn't the same as writing. Plus, I'm at the point now where my thinking ends with what I have written, so...yeah...is there such a thing as Thinker's Block?
The first three chapters are solid and work well. It all unravels from there. With that in mind, I have to think back to my answer, "I just keep writing." Well, how did I do that in the past?
I opened a new document and wrote on a fresh screen without the influence of the existing material. That's what I need to do. Start anew at the last place that makes me happy and see where it goes.
It's a decent start and doesn't mean I have to scrap what I already have written. If it works in the story, it'll fit in somewhere. But maybe I'm clinging to something that doesn't work and it's time to let it go. And so I will set it free.
To quote Harry and the Hendersons...."Run free Little Bob! Run free!"
^_^' ~ Little Bob is not the name of my WIP...
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