In honour of spending the entire afternoon getting stuck on scene blocking, which required the creation of yet another note document to sort out--and to continue the ongoing series here on I Do Not Actually Own A Motorcycle of cynical and sarcastic posts about writer's block--my Top 10 Weird Note Document Filenames!
Showing posts with label revising. Show all posts
Showing posts with label revising. Show all posts
Monday, December 01, 2014
Thursday, November 06, 2014
What To Do When....
I was going to do a big, long NaNoWriMo post but instead I got stuck on a chapter and came out with this. I thought I'd share:
(I also wish to, apropos of nothing, commend Google for making the "Complain to Google" button so obvious and yet so natural within the post editor, as if I could simply complain to Google simply for something to do, or I could send this post to them as a metaphorical statement on the Blogger platform.)
This was mostly an exercise in getting my hands moving. Look! You can do it too!
That was the result of banging my head against my keyboard several times and represents the total sum creative output of about the last three days.89I9tgf5rg tffffvt gfbvryfm ik n bvghn
(I also wish to, apropos of nothing, commend Google for making the "Complain to Google" button so obvious and yet so natural within the post editor, as if I could simply complain to Google simply for something to do, or I could send this post to them as a metaphorical statement on the Blogger platform.)
This was mostly an exercise in getting my hands moving. Look! You can do it too!
Saturday, June 21, 2014
It's Not Perfect, and That's OK
I just finished re-reading The Fionavar Tapestry trilogy this evening and, as with any book, the second read made me think about a lot of things. I always catch more of the little tricks, naturally. More importantly, my standards for authors are higher now, by virtue of my exposure to publishing and the "what it takes" of writing, than they were six or seven years ago when I first read it.
The important thing is how much it still worked. I still fundamentally enjoyed the book, I still nearly cried at the end and I still loved the writing and the slow build and release of tension, the battle construction, and so many other parts of the story and the style of its telling.
The important thing is how much it still worked. I still fundamentally enjoyed the book, I still nearly cried at the end and I still loved the writing and the slow build and release of tension, the battle construction, and so many other parts of the story and the style of its telling.
Saturday, September 15, 2012
Spinning the Middle
I'm writing this post at the end of the middle.
Mostly, I'm waiting for 360-odd pages to print out, which involves a tedious amount of aligning, cartridging, configuring, and patience.
But it will pay off--I'll be able to edit my work over the weekend.
For the past nine months, I've been in the middle. I started in late January at the end of the beginning and here I am at the beginning of the end. The in-between has been a long, weary, trying adventure of getting from one abstract point in a project to another.
(To continue this extended metaphor: I get one measly page into the printing job and the printer chokes on my paper and makes a big gristly mess in the spool. Reset, retry.)
Mostly, I'm waiting for 360-odd pages to print out, which involves a tedious amount of aligning, cartridging, configuring, and patience.
But it will pay off--I'll be able to edit my work over the weekend.
For the past nine months, I've been in the middle. I started in late January at the end of the beginning and here I am at the beginning of the end. The in-between has been a long, weary, trying adventure of getting from one abstract point in a project to another.
(To continue this extended metaphor: I get one measly page into the printing job and the printer chokes on my paper and makes a big gristly mess in the spool. Reset, retry.)
Sunday, May 06, 2012
Revisions and Late '80s Pop Ballads
I spent an entire academic year this past school term in an advanced fiction-writing course. It gave me all sorts of ideas for blog posts, some of which I will likely even get around to posting at some point.
But for now, I'm going to leave those be. I don't want to derail what could otherwise be a useful evening by railing about the use or lack thereof of advanced writing workshops, nor the quality of "criticism" found within them.
I simply want to meditate briefly on the value of, say, Michael Bolton, as an antidote to trying to incorporate revisions that are increasingly inane.
But for now, I'm going to leave those be. I don't want to derail what could otherwise be a useful evening by railing about the use or lack thereof of advanced writing workshops, nor the quality of "criticism" found within them.
I simply want to meditate briefly on the value of, say, Michael Bolton, as an antidote to trying to incorporate revisions that are increasingly inane.
Monday, August 01, 2011
How To Make Bad Writing Good Writing in a Good Way (Or: A Rant About the Editing Process)
Rant time. I did mention there might be a few of those. And while we're on awkward openings, I'm falling into the habit of sub-titling my posts. I shall valiantly attempt to stop this from happening as soon as possible.
But it does segue nicely (uh oh) into a topic that's been bouncing around my head only slightly longer than guilt about not posting more frequently:
It's kind of fun--and it can make you sound way more intelligent than you actually are--to talk at length about the editing process like it's some kind of magic bullet. Like you can go from jot notes to polished product with a five (try 250) step plan. Partly it's been banging around in my head because I've spent a large part of my summer in the vicinty of another writer going through this process and all its assorted deadline angst, and partly it was motivated by a question posed to me about what to do with a really bad piece of writing.
But it does segue nicely (uh oh) into a topic that's been bouncing around my head only slightly longer than guilt about not posting more frequently:
It's kind of fun--and it can make you sound way more intelligent than you actually are--to talk at length about the editing process like it's some kind of magic bullet. Like you can go from jot notes to polished product with a five (try 250) step plan. Partly it's been banging around in my head because I've spent a large part of my summer in the vicinty of another writer going through this process and all its assorted deadline angst, and partly it was motivated by a question posed to me about what to do with a really bad piece of writing.
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