Is this wasting time or is it a good or important thing to do when writing? An example, here's a sentence that made me come up with this thread to begin with: She tried to shout her fears away But is it 'fears' or 'fear'? What is she really afraid of? So the analyzing begun. I went back to see what she's afraid of and it's one thing on that spot. But her fear is multiple other things, vaguely related to this one and i could allude to those things by saying 'fears' instead of 'fear', implying that there's more going on for her than the single thing she's afraid of at that particular moment, that her shout isn't just trying to overcome that one fear, but also a turning point where she stands up against many other fears she had up until that point. She went to that spot many times before as an act of defiance, testing her strength and limit. Then i thought this is one of a million sentences and nobody reads that far in to it/nobody cares. Or do they? I read somewhere to pretend your reader is much smarter and more perceptive than you. So do you guys write a sentence and go 'let's dive into it and see what i SPECIFICALLY' want to convey? What do you do advise?
I care this much. I don't spend this much time on one sentence, but I assume that if you weren't writing this post, you wouldn't either. But, yeah, I think the distinction between fear and fears is relevant. Returning to add: Fairly frequently, I'll use my own turn of phrase, which I regard as nongrammatical or just plain weird, as a communication to my future self when I get back to the bit of writing. And then when I get back I find that I can just leave that thing there.
How far into your draft are you? Yes, you should do a line edit. But, as a general rule, you shouldn't be tweaking individual sentences until you are finished with your major revisions.
I think that's true for more writers than not--and I realize that you said 'as a general rule', rather than as an absolute--but it's not true for me. If I don't tweak the sentences to speak to me in the right way, I lose the mood when I return to the section. Edited to add: Now, if that stalled me so badly that I didn't make any progress, I'd have to find another way. But I can do that early polishing and still progress at a decent rate.
The story and main elements is already written out from beginning to end in a synopsis. Now i'm following that and writing a way more detailed version. I treat it like writing dialogue in comics, if i'm stuck on something too long, i use a cheesy placeholder in red and move on. But that's rare, i do try to get it all 'right' from the first time. Is that a wrong approach?
I would advise that you find an approach that you are comfortable with. Yes! For me. Maybe not for you? whether you query the for trad publishing, edit for self publishing, or distribute it amongst your friends, nobody is going to ask what your method of writing it was, and even if they did they would be satisfied with what you told them. Creative writing really is a field in which the product is all important - it isn't like maths at school where you get marks for "showing your working"
I write this way, really strikingly similar to your approach. For big works I build a synopsis too, but for short stories I just plan them out in my head (yes, that's an outline, because outlines don't have to be written down). I go through the ideas a dozen times or so. Then when I'm ready, I'll sketch rigid notes and write/edit simultaneously from beginning to end. I edit as I go because I want spontaneous details to sneak in and I need completed thoughts/phrases for that. I let them land where they want for nuance. So I can't write out of order. It would be like writing a prequel to a movie where nothing surprising can happen early because the end is already decided. And though the big picture is set (mostly), to me the details are the soul of the story. But that's just me. Everyone has a favorite approach. I think yours sounds perfectly normal. Somebody else will think it's weird. That's fine though. As long as you can fill pages and get to the end, you're golden. I think at some point, most writers are going to line edit and consider their phrases. (I would have chosen "shout her fears away." Just for the added scope.) When should that happen, is the question. If your second draft is destructive, then you might over-commit to words that are going to die. That's the danger. You might try to protect your words because they took so much work to come up with. To overcome this I don't really delete anything. When it comes time to revise and I have to chop, I cut the offending lines and paste them into a different file. I find this makes my edits more dispassionate because nothing's really lost. You have to edit like a field surgeon. Chop and slice. Don't worry about Johnny never playing the piano again. You can graft his fingers onto another patient. That gives me an idea for a story.
The only wrong approach is what doesn't work for you. I'm very much working that out for myself. I'm completing the 1st draft of my third book (the first two were not good). I'm very happy with the progress this time. A big factor in that is discovering 'what works for me'. I really sought out writers who clicked with me and learned how they did things. Ironically, by trying out things that work for others I discovered what works for me.
I do this all the time - usually it happens at the beginning of a scene or a change in the scene or at the start of a writing day because I'm trying to get into the tone of the piece and that includes getting the phrasing right. The other day I had a new chapter start with the mc trying to state that he was leaving the country to avoid someone. I laid down a lot of dull sentences about him moving until I realized this doesn't convey anger or the magnitude of his decision - I finally settled with - Kavado put 5, 652 miles between him and Finlay. Emphasizing the distance with a number was my point at which I was satisfied. And that use of put - says it all. Whether I'll keep this in final drafts is another thing but for now I'm satisfied. I don't think it's needed for every scene but there are those moments when you're like - ahh, somethings not working and you need to dig and see why. Usually though once I find my tone the rest of the wording becomes easier.
There is a fine line between navel-gazing re-analysis of your word choice and simple error checking. If you are wondering about fear vs fears, it means that you are at least reading close enough to catch your errors. Unless you're losing sleep over it, I wouldn't lose sleep over it.
As a literature student, I assure you it's only the monologues, extended descriptions, and weird metaphors we focus on.
I don't analyze my own writing beyond 'is this something I would want to read?' and if it passes that test, then it stays in!
Most of the time if I question a sentence, it's because it really doesn't belong or isn't worded right. It's hard to say much about s single sentence. You know the context and how well it fits or doesn't fit. Don't be afraid to kill your darlings. In a big story one sentence is so insignificant.
Don’t worry about individual sentences if they make sense and don’t break grammatical norms. Most readers won’t really notice every single line you write because their makn concern is with the body of writing as a whole. That said when it comes to the opening of the novel I would certainly go over what you’re written line by line because this is where the reader decides whether or not to read on. Even so, it may be better to address this once you’ve written the whole novel - some people do otherwise, there is no “correct” way to write so just keep on keeping on I am very much a victim of over analysis when I read my own stuff. The best way to deal with this I’ve found is to simply leave what I’ve written alone for a long period of time (around 6 months) before returning to it with fresh eyes. Patience is something every writer needs to improve I reckon!
