My WIP is littered with red typing at the end of a para 'the above is ****, rewrite when I come back to it'. I've not deleted anything yet!
Outlining. To the point that I just don't. I'm dyslexic, and it's a nightmare putting lists in linear order. Since I don't outline, editing. I solve that by editing as I go (usually the next day or so after I've written.)
I usually just write the scenes, and then work my way to them. As long as the scene is written, you'll never forget it. Iv also had concept stories that later became lore.
I'm always fascinated by writers who write scenes and then string them into a story later. For me, the characters "tell" me their story in chronological order. Then I go back and trim (or take a hatchet to it, depending). Writing scenes first sounds much more exciting.
The hardest component of writing for me? That's an easy question to answer. Pacing. Getting the pacing of scenes and chapters right. Not spending too much time on one, or making an important one flash past too quickly, especially if the event happens quickly—or at least it would in real time. I know some of the tricks, but how to apply these tricks still gives me bother.
Sometimes a get a bit if both, in a particular scene I'll learn something about a character and it's easier to go back and update previous scenes if needed. Since it's all still concept rather than a rough draft at that point. I've written scenes that explore back stories of characters or inspired other scenes or arch's.
Welcome to my world. I know it's what edits and rewrites are for, but sometimes when I read back through scenes I wince at how quickly I've rushed through them. Five-hundred words when it could have done with fifteen-hundred.
I think they call that 'pointless filler', don't they? That's not a criticism - I do it myself if I'm not careful.
Don't really know why that amused me so much, cos it couldn't be further from the truth. Hemingway is renowned as the master of efficiency.
If you figure out a trick, let me know? I have a scene where one of my main characters is watching somebody get shot. She makes eye contact with the perpetrator, realises it's going to happen, and she sees quite a bit in that moment, as he pulls the gun, aims and pulls the trigger. However, she doesn't have time to stop it from happening, although she does try. It's important that the moment stretches a bit, because it's the culmination of a lot of stuff that has happened in the story, but I had a hell of a time not turning it into slo-mo. In real life, that would have just taken seconds. That's the kind of thing that's hard for me to pull off.
@jannert - I sympathise. Sometimes I make the mistake of following the rule which suggests you move on to the next scene if there's nothing else to say, but I'm not sure that's always the best policy because I often do it when I only think I had nothing else to say. When I review the scene I find it was, in fact, the perfect opportunity to include an important conversation or some character building.
I suppose you can go back and add to it afterwards, though? Do you find your writing is shorter, in general, than you'd like it to be? Or are you like me, always needing to cut back the verbosity?
Wow! And there's me thinking I'd bored everyone to death with my constant whining about my chronic under-writing Yes, my writing is shorter, in general, that I'd like it to be.
My point was that sometimes I tend to write one action after the other, without really doing anything: Action-action-action-etc. You know?
I didn't mean that, exactly. I meant that it was hard for me to write a scene that would only have taken seconds in real life, and give it the weight it needed, because of its importance to the story. Not its impact, but what happens in the actual scene itself. As I said in my previous post, my main character sees a lot as the scene unfolds. I don't ordinarily rush scenes. In fact, I carry a rather Victorian tendency to drag them out, and need to cut them most of the time. But if a significant one would happen quickly in real life, I don't want it to just flash past the reader. Nor do I want to make a melodramatic slo-mo ballet out of it, either. It's not easy. I do think I managed it, in this particular case, but I had to edit that chapter a lot.
I think this is actually one of the most significant challenges for any writer; a genuine test of your abilities. Things that are happen fast (and potentially with lots of things happening all at once) but are really impactful immediately puts you up against the wall. You can't go too long because that'll blow the sense of immediacy and rapid action, but you need to use more words to ensure that the reader sees it's important and remembers it and of course if you don't use enough words you can come across as being a bit glib (oh yeah someone got shot, no big deal, no need to talk about it) and ensuring you get it how you want is hard. In comic books they call this kind of thing decompressing; using multiple panels that cover a very short space of time. Simply using more snap shots of a moment (as each panel is) lets you get across that something more impactful is happening without necessarily needing to use more words to get that across. In a book that's rather trickier to do because you don't have a visual thing to work with to use in place of words. But I think it helps to think about it in those terms; to think about it as a series of ideas that make this important and giving each one it's own little space to breathe, while using temporally specific language to ensure that it sounds like just one moment. But even then it's a challenge.
However, good writing is a standard that can be elusive to define or realise. I think that's why many of us go through 'this is good, this is okay, this is really crap' stages with our own writing. And no matter how well we think we've done, there will always be people who don't rate us as writers. In a way it's a liberating thing to realise. However, it can also provide an excuse for not wanting to improve. Tricksy....
That's one good thing about laboring in obscurity; at least you don't have thousands of people queuing up to tell you that every word you put on paper is a crime against literature But yes, I think it is an important moment for any writer to go through when they figure out that they can't please everyone and they shouldn't try to. Once you stop trying to put in something for everyone and start writing the book that you want then I think you're on the right lines. But you are right; you can't just brush off all criticism by saying "Well this isn't really for you anyway...", as if you can only possibly be a genius and there are only two kinds of readers in the world; those who understand how amazing you are and those who are idiots who know nothing about writing. And that leads to another important moment in your development; figuring out which criticisms are a matter of taste and what criticisms you need to pat attention to even from someone who doesn't like that kind of book. It is really important to always be looking to make yourself better as a writer and you can't make excuses for not doing that. That doesn't mean you should think your work is crap and in fact I think you do need to have a little bit of ego about what you write; you should believe in it and feel that it's good. But you need to always accept that you can get better and listen to the people who's opinions you trust.
