Last night I went to see a great talk by Lynda Barry and Matt Groening, about their long friendship, their comics, and Matt's work on The Simpsons & etc. I love them so much
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Isn't it? I didn't know this but Lynda Barry travels around now doing workshops on writing and creativity, and she has a book called What It Is on the subject. Now I think I need to get it!
That is indeed fascinating and I like your additional thoughts on editing. Glad you found a good way to deal with redoing parts of a story. :-)
I am not there, yet, but I hope to achieve a more zen attitude toward editing myself in the future. Previously, most of my editing has either been on the grammar/spelling level &ndash or in the case of deeper problems than that, the complete trashing of the story. LOL.
Glad you found a good way to deal with redoing parts of a story.
As a perfectionist, I'm always looking for new and better reasons to go back and perfect things! The trouble is when I've revised and revised like a hundred times, and then I go back to my original draft and it's so much clearer and then I have to smack myself.
I think it's the influence of academia that's made me a more structural/thematic editor. I do have to go back and find typos because they hide from me, but when I'm editing I'm mainly removing superfluous words (because my natural style is not concise!), finding places where I've used the same word three times in two paragraphs, and GRAPPLING like an obsessed person with the emotional content.
My current obsession is with whether Spock is too emo in my ballroom scene. But since it's from his POV there's no good way to indicate that, hey, he's feeling this inside but outside it's not that obvious. Okay, there are "good ways" to do that--Kazuo Ishiguro does that incredibly well in The Remains of the Day,
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Oh, I shall have to track down The Remains of the Day as I liked his Never let me go. I am no help in determining whether or not a given scene is too emo but as for the "majorly broiling underneath the surface, calm on the outside" issue... can you try to show it in the others' reactions? Mayhaps have someone (though not Suresh, lol) ask him at some point why he's taking things so calmly or something? IDK.
As for your editing and obsessions, well, I've found your fics so beautiful and flowing so naturally that I'd say the work pays off. ;-)
The Remains of the Day is so great! One of my favorite things is how completely unreliable the narrator is--so he'll be telling you how he's standing there all calm and efficient and everything's great and then someone will come up and be like, are you okay, because I can't help noticing you're crying right now.
I feel like it works well in that direction, but it's a little harder going the other way, if that makes sense. Like, if the character is acting weird/upset, people will remark on it. If he's acting calmer on the outside than he feels, why would they notice? UNLESS they're expecting him to be upset--but then he's a Vulcan so most people already think he has no feelings. But I'm going to take a stab at it--maybe I can find a way to do it subtly.
Also, *blush.* Thank you for your nice words about my fic. I love working on it and my hope is to give it those qualities. So, thank you!
I only just heard about her classes in creativity, but now that I have I really want to take one. I did take a walk to my local bookstore today and have a look at the book she's written on the subject, which you've probably seen (What It Is). I got sucked right into it, just like I did by her talk last night. I completely agree with you about her matter-of-factness--that's a great observation and so true! There's something about her honesty that makes you feel very confident that you can trust what she says. Because she's encouraging you at the same time she's letting you see how painful the struggle for self-expression has been for her.
I still have my very old books by her--Girls and Boys and Everything in the World and Big Ideas, with the pages loose. I love them all so much; as an artist I think she broke new ground in my mind about what was possible/acceptable to do in creative work. She still seems to me one of the bravest storytellers I've read, and some of her comics still make me cry--because I remember being 16 or
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I am not there, yet, but I hope to achieve a more zen attitude toward editing myself in the future. Previously, most of my editing has either been on the grammar/spelling level &ndash or in the case of deeper problems than that, the complete trashing of the story. LOL.
Reply
As a perfectionist, I'm always looking for new and better reasons to go back and perfect things! The trouble is when I've revised and revised like a hundred times, and then I go back to my original draft and it's so much clearer and then I have to smack myself.
I think it's the influence of academia that's made me a more structural/thematic editor. I do have to go back and find typos because they hide from me, but when I'm editing I'm mainly removing superfluous words (because my natural style is not concise!), finding places where I've used the same word three times in two paragraphs, and GRAPPLING like an obsessed person with the emotional content.
My current obsession is with whether Spock is too emo in my ballroom scene. But since it's from his POV there's no good way to indicate that, hey, he's feeling this inside but outside it's not that obvious. Okay, there are "good ways" to do that--Kazuo Ishiguro does that incredibly well in The Remains of the Day, ( ... )
Reply
As for your editing and obsessions, well, I've found your fics so beautiful and flowing so naturally that I'd say the work pays off. ;-)
Reply
I feel like it works well in that direction, but it's a little harder going the other way, if that makes sense. Like, if the character is acting weird/upset, people will remark on it. If he's acting calmer on the outside than he feels, why would they notice? UNLESS they're expecting him to be upset--but then he's a Vulcan so most people already think he has no feelings. But I'm going to take a stab at it--maybe I can find a way to do it subtly.
Also, *blush.* Thank you for your nice words about my fic. I love working on it and my hope is to give it those qualities. So, thank you!
Reply
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I still have my very old books by her--Girls and Boys and Everything in the World and Big Ideas, with the pages loose. I love them all so much; as an artist I think she broke new ground in my mind about what was possible/acceptable to do in creative work. She still seems to me one of the bravest storytellers I've read, and some of her comics still make me cry--because I remember being 16 or ( ... )
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