Fluorescent announcements beat their wings overhead
I was thinking about writing tonight. I have been reading a lot of fiction lately, mostly things I've already read, but love and will read again. I have just started a reread of The Drowning City by Amanda Downum, which I enjoyed very much the first time around, and now I'm noticing things I didn't notice the first time around. I'm really noticing all of the rich, intricate details that make this book come alive.
Since I've been spending so much time writing, I'm starting to notice the things that I like in other people's writing are missing from my own. All that rich detail I admired so much in The Drowning City is missing from my own. My own writing is much more skeletal. I see the story in my head, and don't write the little details.
Because the characters and world is so real in my mind, I don't feel the need to fill out. I understand what's going on and why. And I know what everyone looks like. But anyone else who was reading this wouldn't. It wouldn't make sense. Because there are none of the details that make it more real to the reader, who does not live in my head.
Part of me would really like to fix this right now, but I know that I can't, because if I start fixing this now, I will spend all my time fixing it, and none of my time finishing it. So finish it first, and then fix it. And I can make the bits I have to add better. They can be more detail rich, more aware of their surroundings and the people involved, and I can sew it all together.
Since I've been spending so much time writing, I'm starting to notice the things that I like in other people's writing are missing from my own. All that rich detail I admired so much in The Drowning City is missing from my own. My own writing is much more skeletal. I see the story in my head, and don't write the little details.
Because the characters and world is so real in my mind, I don't feel the need to fill out. I understand what's going on and why. And I know what everyone looks like. But anyone else who was reading this wouldn't. It wouldn't make sense. Because there are none of the details that make it more real to the reader, who does not live in my head.
Part of me would really like to fix this right now, but I know that I can't, because if I start fixing this now, I will spend all my time fixing it, and none of my time finishing it. So finish it first, and then fix it. And I can make the bits I have to add better. They can be more detail rich, more aware of their surroundings and the people involved, and I can sew it all together.