Lauren K. Moody (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
anthimeria) wrote2012-11-15 01:06 am
anthimeria) wrote2012-11-15 01:06 am
Entry tags:
Actualfacts progress, yo
. . . my roommate's way of speaking is infectious, shut up.
AT ANY RATE, the dragon book (Trial) is going well. Not steadily, which is weird for my usual novel-writing, but I haven't successfully full-out written a piece of any length in a while, so I hope this is just--I dunno, getting-back-on-the-horse jitters. I'm managing a chapter every time I sit down. Because this is a shorter book than Skywatch, a chapter's between 1000-1500 words. I can do more in a session (witness some of my lovely word counts on here), but so far one chapter at a time seems to be working. It's messy and flaily and I can tell it's going to take a lot of cleanup--Eva and Scorch's voices are way too similar, I'm not sure my haphazard exposition makes enough sense, and for some reason I can't get any of the other senses engaged besides sight--but such can be fixed. I need a draft to fix,so I am making a draft.
I'm doing alright so far switching POVs every chapter, but I can tell it's going to get tricky. I've already had to move things from one chapter to another; I know there are probably chapters later where this becomes ludicrous, but that's a problem to tackle when I get there. And even then, it's a problem to tackle in draft two.
Probably one of the most important things I learned from my creative writing degree and in the years since is that drafting is not just important to me, its essential.
In high school I was the red fish in a pond of gray fish--one of those writers everyone hated to get for peer review (or maybe loved), because they all wrote "loved it, don't change anything" on peer review and we were required to have a certain number of drafts. I distinctly remember, more than once, literally making up drafts on the day before my writing portfolios were due by instituting fake changes and then undoing them, because I had no idea what else to change. Because I thought it was good, and so did everyone else. (There's a reason I was sure I'd be a published novelist by now, my ego needed no stroking.)
Going to a college known for its creative writing, with one of the oldest and best programs in the country, changed everything. I don't think I ever made it to legendary status at Knox, for good reason, but I was noisy and the English department knew I was there (co-founded a coalition of genre magazines and advocated for the legitimacy of genre nonstop). They were awesome and my peers were awesome and I learned so much. And I learned how to learn, how to push myself, how to interrogate my own writing the way I could other's (though I am also very much dependent on betas even now, maybe especially now, because I know how important they are), how to experiment, and what exactly drafting was for.
I'm absolutely sure nobody else writes the way I do, and I don't write like anyone else. Drafting has changed for me, even with the few novels I've written, and I'm sure my process will continue to evolve. Not everything will work (I am not a seat-of-the-pants writer; witness Horizons). Some first drafts are going to be better than others. Some are going to be better or worse or flawed in different ways. The Novel was always mostly solid, at its bones--it was the musculature that needed toning, especially once I got the new ending sorted. Skywatch needed refining like crazy, and for me to get a more solid idea of the characters and bring out the shine of the world. I don't know yet what Trial will need, or how long it will take, but I think I'll get there, and I think it's going to be fun.
Five chapters down, twenty-one to go.
AT ANY RATE, the dragon book (Trial) is going well. Not steadily, which is weird for my usual novel-writing, but I haven't successfully full-out written a piece of any length in a while, so I hope this is just--I dunno, getting-back-on-the-horse jitters. I'm managing a chapter every time I sit down. Because this is a shorter book than Skywatch, a chapter's between 1000-1500 words. I can do more in a session (witness some of my lovely word counts on here), but so far one chapter at a time seems to be working. It's messy and flaily and I can tell it's going to take a lot of cleanup--Eva and Scorch's voices are way too similar, I'm not sure my haphazard exposition makes enough sense, and for some reason I can't get any of the other senses engaged besides sight--but such can be fixed. I need a draft to fix,so I am making a draft.
I'm doing alright so far switching POVs every chapter, but I can tell it's going to get tricky. I've already had to move things from one chapter to another; I know there are probably chapters later where this becomes ludicrous, but that's a problem to tackle when I get there. And even then, it's a problem to tackle in draft two.
Probably one of the most important things I learned from my creative writing degree and in the years since is that drafting is not just important to me, its essential.
In high school I was the red fish in a pond of gray fish--one of those writers everyone hated to get for peer review (or maybe loved), because they all wrote "loved it, don't change anything" on peer review and we were required to have a certain number of drafts. I distinctly remember, more than once, literally making up drafts on the day before my writing portfolios were due by instituting fake changes and then undoing them, because I had no idea what else to change. Because I thought it was good, and so did everyone else. (There's a reason I was sure I'd be a published novelist by now, my ego needed no stroking.)
Going to a college known for its creative writing, with one of the oldest and best programs in the country, changed everything. I don't think I ever made it to legendary status at Knox, for good reason, but I was noisy and the English department knew I was there (co-founded a coalition of genre magazines and advocated for the legitimacy of genre nonstop). They were awesome and my peers were awesome and I learned so much. And I learned how to learn, how to push myself, how to interrogate my own writing the way I could other's (though I am also very much dependent on betas even now, maybe especially now, because I know how important they are), how to experiment, and what exactly drafting was for.
I'm absolutely sure nobody else writes the way I do, and I don't write like anyone else. Drafting has changed for me, even with the few novels I've written, and I'm sure my process will continue to evolve. Not everything will work (I am not a seat-of-the-pants writer; witness Horizons). Some first drafts are going to be better than others. Some are going to be better or worse or flawed in different ways. The Novel was always mostly solid, at its bones--it was the musculature that needed toning, especially once I got the new ending sorted. Skywatch needed refining like crazy, and for me to get a more solid idea of the characters and bring out the shine of the world. I don't know yet what Trial will need, or how long it will take, but I think I'll get there, and I think it's going to be fun.
Five chapters down, twenty-one to go.