Sensibility
It's been a week since I last posted here, so - time for an update.
I finished the first draft of "Honest Work" on Monday and I felt very proud of it. Thought it reminded me of my favorite Old Time Radio show Quiet, Please. I exported it from Scrivener to Word and printed it out for editing later on. The next day I started the new story, "Soul Stripper" and forgot about "Work" for the time being. Wednesday morning I printed "Work" and took it with me to the doctor's office where I ended up waiting for nearly an hour before I saw the physician's assistant.
I read "Honest Work" while I waited.
It wasn't good. There were a few bits that I thought were nicely done, but it was long by over 1100 words, had no danger and was terribly, terribly uneven. I didn't like the main character, either. She was so dispassionate and cold she was completely unlikeable. I stopped reading three-quarters of the way through not just because the PA came in, but because it was a painful thing I'd written.
And not in a good way.
To say the least, I was disappointed but I wasn't defeated. I knew it was fixable, I knew what to do. Wednesday night I started re-plotting, added an element of danger and moved a setting to something smaller. Yesterday I opened a new Scrivener file and began banging away. I could have spent time gnashing teeth and rending clothes, but that wouldn't have been productive. Instead I realized I'd written 7100 words in order to get the real 6000 I need. I learned a lot from making that mistake and it's best for me to jump right back in and put what I've learned to good use.
I Twittered that 'sometimes you have to write one thing in order to write another' and that's what's true for me. I got a lot of background and I can even use some of what I wrote before, but I'm not going to. "Honest Work" is going through a complete re-write, will be a completely new draft. If there's a problem with the second draft that I can't fix with minor edits, I'll have to rethink the entire story, but I don't see that happening. I really evaluated what the original version lacked and have added the necessary elements (a ticking clock, real danger, etc...) and it's flowing out of me. The first draft was not easy to write. This one is humming right along.
This is where I'm at an advantage over someone who's more a full-time writer than I am. I can spend time on a story like this and make these kinds of big mistakes. All it costs me is time.
This is where I'm learning to be a better writer.
I finished the first draft of "Honest Work" on Monday and I felt very proud of it. Thought it reminded me of my favorite Old Time Radio show Quiet, Please. I exported it from Scrivener to Word and printed it out for editing later on. The next day I started the new story, "Soul Stripper" and forgot about "Work" for the time being. Wednesday morning I printed "Work" and took it with me to the doctor's office where I ended up waiting for nearly an hour before I saw the physician's assistant.
I read "Honest Work" while I waited.
It wasn't good. There were a few bits that I thought were nicely done, but it was long by over 1100 words, had no danger and was terribly, terribly uneven. I didn't like the main character, either. She was so dispassionate and cold she was completely unlikeable. I stopped reading three-quarters of the way through not just because the PA came in, but because it was a painful thing I'd written.
And not in a good way.
To say the least, I was disappointed but I wasn't defeated. I knew it was fixable, I knew what to do. Wednesday night I started re-plotting, added an element of danger and moved a setting to something smaller. Yesterday I opened a new Scrivener file and began banging away. I could have spent time gnashing teeth and rending clothes, but that wouldn't have been productive. Instead I realized I'd written 7100 words in order to get the real 6000 I need. I learned a lot from making that mistake and it's best for me to jump right back in and put what I've learned to good use.
I Twittered that 'sometimes you have to write one thing in order to write another' and that's what's true for me. I got a lot of background and I can even use some of what I wrote before, but I'm not going to. "Honest Work" is going through a complete re-write, will be a completely new draft. If there's a problem with the second draft that I can't fix with minor edits, I'll have to rethink the entire story, but I don't see that happening. I really evaluated what the original version lacked and have added the necessary elements (a ticking clock, real danger, etc...) and it's flowing out of me. The first draft was not easy to write. This one is humming right along.
This is where I'm at an advantage over someone who's more a full-time writer than I am. I can spend time on a story like this and make these kinds of big mistakes. All it costs me is time.
This is where I'm learning to be a better writer.