HANDYMAN'S HELPER: L. Jagi Lamplighter

[lit_handyman]

The Agony and the Ecstasy

by L. Jagi Lamplighter
(c) 2009
(Originally posted on the Sidhe Na Daire blog)

Okay, maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration. What I really meant to say was: the drudgery and the fun parts.

Someone once said that a writer is someone who shows bravery in the face of a blank paper. There is great truth in this. Getting started is

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WRITING POST

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[laurie_gail]

Like you, I'm not a lover of first drafts. OK, that's an understatement. I find them painful, agonizing. My first drafts are, essentially, barely coherent outlines with a few details tossed in. When I read over it later, even I can't figure out what I was trying to say.

I don't call the next step editing. It's more like reconstructive surgery, but I find that fun and invigorating. That is where the story starts to come together, where it begins to breathe a life of its own.

Then I edit to make sure it flows smoothly. I like that, too.

I am in awe of writers who can sit down and spit out a legible first draft. Some even get a finished product that sells with only that one draft plus a little grammar/spelling cleanup.

So what have I learned about getting through the dreary bits? Just sit down, stop whining, and do it. And the next day, do it again. It's more bearable now, because I know that the fun will come, that I will eventually achieve that transcendent state some call The Zone, where magic happens.

[arhyalon]

>When I read over it later, even I can't figure out what I was trying to say.

LOL That only happens to me when I am writing longhand. Then, it does happen!

But other than that, I think you and I are on the same page. (Which will be confusing, if we are not writing the same story on it. ;-P )

[lit_handyman]

I think that could be rather amusing...It would be an interesting writing exercise, if nothing else...if you did tag-team writing but the other authors weren't allowed to know what the other people wrote...hmmm....

[lit_handyman]

Thanks for reading, Laurie,

Personally...I cheat. I never really have a first draft because I'm constantly revising as I go along. Mostly this is because I've never been real successful at writing an outline so I hope from idea to idea and then weave them all together as I go along. Rarely do I write a longer work in a linear fashion. Stories I have a bit more success with that, but only because it is mostly taking a single idea from beginning to end, rather than playing with multiple threads :)

My dreariest part is the waiting...I am REALLY bad at the waiting. Right now there are four things I am waiting to hear back on and it is making me twitchy. One of them I submitted in the beginning of May and it is only now being reviewed! It is the reason I so rarely do cold calls with my fiction...much less stressful to write things by invitation, then it's usually just a matter of when it is accepted, rather than if...unless I've really bolluxed things up! LOL

Best,

Danielle

[jasonfranks]

I'm the other way around. The first draft is a thrill ride. Starting out fresh is always fun, for me. And yeah, okay, stopping and starting can be a bit of a buzzkill, but by and large the joy of it, for me, is getting the ideas down for the first time. The moment when you find a connection or a reflection that you didn't plan, or when a character reaches out of the page and slaps you--I love that.

I don't always write stories in chronological order but I guess more often than not I do... because the first draft is all about momentum.

Editing is a real drag. I like the end results--cleaner, faster, more efficient prose--but going through the stories over and over and over is like getting back on the same roller coaster with a hangover. Probably doesn't help that I get a bit pathological about it. Usually the stories are pretty clean by the third draft, but that's never enough to satisfy me. Usually I think I do six or seven drafts, but I have been known to get up to 15.

[phoebewray]

I'm on Jason's wave length: I LOVE the first writing, getting those ideas down. The characters often surprise me. Characters show up I didn't know were coming to the party. That's fun!

What drives me whacky is to have The Grand Idea, and not be able to start it. Nothing clicks. The words don't come. No one shows up. That usually doesn't last too long but is mad-making.

I don't mind the editing, polishing. I convince myself that it makes the story better.

[jasonfranks]

Usually, for me, there's a period of time where I let the Grand Idea percolate before I'll start writing. Unless there's a deadline, I will usually wait until the pot is mostly full before I start writing.

If I get stuck on something I'll go away for a few hours, or a day or two, until the problem solves itself. I do this in my day job as well. It's rare that I come across a problem that a little increment of time and distance doesn't fix.

If there is a deadline, fear and desperation will usually work as acceptable substitutes.

[lit_handyman]

LOL...I can't tell you how many things I've whipped out under the threat of deadlines...or extensions. It crystalizes things in a way that is only topped by those rare instances of when you get an idea and the story explodes onto the monitor in one shot when you are barely looking. Those are rare, splendiferous moments...

D-