Comments | pameladean: What I ought to have said on that Fourth Street panel

pameladean

What I ought to have said on that Fourth Street panel

Jul 10, 2010 14:36

This year Fourth Street left room to drag people onto panels at the last moment. I had an hour and a half's warning of the first one, but missed completely the moment when I was put on the Sunday afternoon panel about how you know when to stop revising. skzb reasonably felt that, given the situation my book and I are in, I should be on this panel. I ( Read more... )

abiding reflection, amazing expanding and shrinking novel, writing, fourth street fantasy convention, revisions, going north

Comments 21

chaoticgoodnik July 10 2010, 20:15:50 UTC

Oh boy.

As a self-centered reader ... this brief description makes me want to read this book even more. (Especially in the long form, someday, if that's still something you plan to do.) It's got almost all of my favorite thematic elements.

sartorias July 10 2010, 21:03:52 UTC

Nodding (and thinking, as I do some radical revision)

skzbrust July 10 2010, 22:38:50 UTC

Hmmm. Interesting stuff. I have to think about it. Say, for the next year.

pameladean July 16 2010, 18:39:26 UTC

I am so befuddled that the full meaning of this remark only recently got through. Excellent. I can't wait.

P.

lollardfish July 10 2010, 22:41:33 UTC

Interesting stuff. I'm busy turning 130,000 words into 100,000 words (of which at least a third will be new), i.e. my dissertation into a monograph, so have had this kind of question on my mind the last month or so.

pameladean July 16 2010, 18:43:35 UTC

Ouch. How's that going? As I remarked below to Oursin, I'd think this kind of revision would be much, much worse for non-fiction, where you have an argument to make and where there are actual facts available.

P.

lollardfish July 16 2010, 18:46:02 UTC

Well, I lost my argument mid-way and have had to regroup a little.

pameladean July 16 2010, 21:56:55 UTC

I hate it when that happens. (Seriously, I know what you mean.)

P.

Thread 6

(The comment has been removed)

pameladean July 16 2010, 18:40:56 UTC

Yes, I only think about it in a vague way when I'm stuck between two choices of how to proceed, or want an example or a description or a background detail. If I happen to have an inkling of the theme and have a choice that will reinforce it, then I'll chuck that in there. Some of them come back out again at the end and some stay.

I am actually finding this process instructive, but I sincerely hope that what I learn will sink back into the intuitive part of my writing, or I will be very confused.

P.