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Writing Thoughts - Edit Epiphany
Dec. 1st, 2006 10:44 pmI guess I'll be posting some writing thoughts from time to time as I'm in the middle of two projects and neither are particularly interesting to blog about, I don't think. Though I must say it's easier to keep things straight when you have two different worlds. I'm editing and writing two contemporary romances. They're in completely different settings, Foster's Way is a small town community and the other is set in an unspecified city, but still, the dress, talk, and such have parallels. I haven't messed up between them yet, but I live in dread of it ;).
However, that's not what I'd planned for this post, so I better get on topic (I'd say back, but I never got there in the first place ;)).
I'm one of those writers who subscribes to the always learning belief. If I stop learning, I think I'll probably stop writing because where will the interest be?
Having said that, it's all very well to believe you're always learning, but it is often hard to see that yourself. We've probably all done the read through of older stories to see that we've gotten better. I know it's a painful process, but a worthwhile one. Well, I did that recently with a short story I wrote for the Firestorm of Dragons anthology my Fantasy Writing listserv was setting up. Only it came in significantly below the word count so I put it aside, meaning to edit it someday. That was about two years ago.
If I said that I've never found anything to change in my two-year-old stories, I hope someone would beat me about the head as a liar :). However, this is the first time I saw something I've been struggling with and caught it myself.
I'm a decent plotter. My stories have beginnings, middles, and ends, they've got tension, growth, and change. But if you followed the Kyrnie edit, you'll know that sometimes I don't capitalize on the order of events as much as I could.
I've always said you learn more from critting than being critted, and I believe it's true. However, I usually absorb what I learn and apply it instinctively. With this story, I reread the file and recognized writing style weaknesses and areas for improvement as I usually do with older stories. The amazing moment with the short story I just edited was simply this: I also could see not only that the ending was poor, but why! It was a timing issue, or so I think. We'll see what my critters say.
Ultimately, I'd set it up as a climax and a denouement, which is fine, except that the climax came too simply and the denouement didn't quite bring the story back to the beginning. I've had critters point out timing issues, I've pointed out timing in stories I've critted. This is the first time I consciously looked at a story and not only identified the problem (which I've done before obviously) but identified it as a problem with a timing solution.
So anyway, I'm sitting here all thrilled with the evidence that I am improving, and improving in a critical way. The better I can make the second draft on my own, the more likely my critters are to give me what I need to polish it and get it out the door, rather than back to the rewrite table.
So, any moments of epiphany in your edits? Hey, if this keeps happening, maybe I'll get over my edit grumbles...unlikely, but maybe :D.
However, that's not what I'd planned for this post, so I better get on topic (I'd say back, but I never got there in the first place ;)).
I'm one of those writers who subscribes to the always learning belief. If I stop learning, I think I'll probably stop writing because where will the interest be?
Having said that, it's all very well to believe you're always learning, but it is often hard to see that yourself. We've probably all done the read through of older stories to see that we've gotten better. I know it's a painful process, but a worthwhile one. Well, I did that recently with a short story I wrote for the Firestorm of Dragons anthology my Fantasy Writing listserv was setting up. Only it came in significantly below the word count so I put it aside, meaning to edit it someday. That was about two years ago.
If I said that I've never found anything to change in my two-year-old stories, I hope someone would beat me about the head as a liar :). However, this is the first time I saw something I've been struggling with and caught it myself.
I'm a decent plotter. My stories have beginnings, middles, and ends, they've got tension, growth, and change. But if you followed the Kyrnie edit, you'll know that sometimes I don't capitalize on the order of events as much as I could.
I've always said you learn more from critting than being critted, and I believe it's true. However, I usually absorb what I learn and apply it instinctively. With this story, I reread the file and recognized writing style weaknesses and areas for improvement as I usually do with older stories. The amazing moment with the short story I just edited was simply this: I also could see not only that the ending was poor, but why! It was a timing issue, or so I think. We'll see what my critters say.
Ultimately, I'd set it up as a climax and a denouement, which is fine, except that the climax came too simply and the denouement didn't quite bring the story back to the beginning. I've had critters point out timing issues, I've pointed out timing in stories I've critted. This is the first time I consciously looked at a story and not only identified the problem (which I've done before obviously) but identified it as a problem with a timing solution.
So anyway, I'm sitting here all thrilled with the evidence that I am improving, and improving in a critical way. The better I can make the second draft on my own, the more likely my critters are to give me what I need to polish it and get it out the door, rather than back to the rewrite table.
So, any moments of epiphany in your edits? Hey, if this keeps happening, maybe I'll get over my edit grumbles...unlikely, but maybe :D.
