I am working on this "draft" (of drafts) again. It says I last worked on it in 2016, the first words go back to 2011, which I find both curious, and almost desperate. The plot is vague, the characters unbelievable, well, not so deep anyway. Yet I find this important, even vital: retracing these … Continue reading Nothing like a five-year old manuscript
Editing
Shitty first drafts
“Very few writers really know what they are doing until they’ve done it.”
Shitty first drafts. All good writers write them. This is how they end up with good second drafts and terrific third drafts. People tend to look at successful writers who are getting their books published and maybe even doing well financially and think that they sit down at their desks every morning feeling like a million dollars, feeling great about who they are and how much talent they have and what a great story they have to tell; that they take in a few deep breaths, push back their sleeves, roll their necks a few times to get all the cricks out, and dive in, typing fully formed passages as fast as a court reporter. But this is just the fantasy of the uninitiated. I know some very great writers, writers you love who write beautifully and have made a great deal of money, and not one of them sits…
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Of a broken box and a small town
In the past two weeks my writing output (I did not want to say "literary") was badly affected by the collapse of my old Mac, bought in 2009. This was the tool for my writing before and after a first (disk) failure, back in 2018. I was then lucky enough to find a local expert … Continue reading Of a broken box and a small town
Clean #amwriting
The Prompt Each day some words appear on the page, tentative, surrounded in mist, as if those words emerged from a cloudy landscape, as yet unformed. Summoning a clean page let the characters know: they are not alone, more life is being breathed into their world, a genesis. Their impatience is a testimony to their … Continue reading Clean #amwriting
Disagree #DailyPost #WritersWednesday
Inspired by today's prompt "It's me you're babbling about, isn't it?" she said, on a tone of voice that betrayed her mounting anger. I kept silent, no point in denying: the computer screen clearly showing the latest entry on her story was there, in front of us. At this point she was arguing with her … Continue reading Disagree #DailyPost #WritersWednesday
Edit, Rewrite, or… Scrap: #Writer’s dilemma #amwriting
I know this work is far from being completed, let alone publishable. Friends have, politely, ignored invites to comment, always a bad sign... Yet I am reluctant to scrap, while accepting that making this good would require a lot of effort, probably more so than it took to scribble in the first place. What hope … Continue reading Edit, Rewrite, or… Scrap: #Writer’s dilemma #amwriting
On page turning #amwriting #amediting
Every writer reaches this point, I expect, sooner or later, when a decision has to be taken: continue the story, or close it, refine it, not just through careful editing, but perhaps rewriting too. After forty odd thousand words the story has its own momentum, and the characters their own agenda. Once one reaches the … Continue reading On page turning #amwriting #amediting
After the First Draft #amediting, or am I (re) #writing?
The struggle to complete the mythical first draft opens the gate to another level of enjoyment: in this case I am waiting for the work undertaken by my editor - bless her keyboard - to be completed before switching seriously into 2nd draft gear. I have already done some work on the basis of her … Continue reading After the First Draft #amediting, or am I (re) #writing?
Hectic weeks in perspective… #amediting
Well, my friend Tara is soon starting work on The Page book 1... In the meantime I am getting ready to rewrite, at the same time as making a start on book 2. There is already a lot of material there which needs editing - of course - and sorting. The tale continues in Berlin … Continue reading Hectic weeks in perspective… #amediting
