In my case, one of my natural talents seems to be my strange ability to injure myself in my sleep. Woke up this morning to discover I'd managed to put my back out during the night. This after a weekend of non-strenuous activities that included dinner with friends, going to the movies, and reading. Yes. So today I spent a good amount of time away
(
Read more... )
Comments 4
You rang?
The thing I needed to learn is that when you're dealing with a first or zeroeth draft (the rougher cousin of a first draft) polishing isn't enough. Small adjustments - a better word here, a paragraph cut there - are the last stage of the process. What I needed was re-vision - to take this rough story I had and to look at every detail of it - the flow, the descriptions, the structure, the events and their order - *everything*. What I see too often are drafts which can be summarised as 'rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic' - a much more polished product, yes, but still fundamentally flawed.
Some of 'em are in a trunk under my bed.
Reply
Reply
I have high respect for editors and agents already, but seeing a sampling of what you deal with every day really reinforces it. How you maintain any optimism at all is a mystery. :)
Reply
On top of that, I invest so much in beginnings perhaps I skew the fabric in the middle? Maybe I should start with the ending and then work towards the opening. Hmm...here, I ponder. Jane
Reply
Leave a comment