“You should give up revising The Falling Darkness so you can
focus on your upcoming novel.”
“No! I really shouldn’t. If I give up then I’ll be setting the
standard for all the rest of my novels!
You know how I am, and if I always write first drafts and never revise
then nothing will ever come of me as a writer.”
“Yes, but you are going to go mad if you try to do
both. And November is right around the
corner. If you don’t plan anything then you know what we'll write.”
“Lots of writers write as they go - with little planning.”
“Maybe. But you don’t
know how your favorite books were written.
I can’t imagine Dickens just writing what he felt like, he had some
serious planning go into his novels.”
“Well, maybe I should look up how he wrote his novels.”
“You’re avoiding the point.
You know how you write and that’s the point. You’ll write trash in November if you don’t
have a good plan.”
“Fine. I’ll give up
on the old one. Happy?”
“It doesn’t have to be forever, just long enough to get
through November.”
“Fine.”
“Don’t look so grumpy, it’s for the best.”
“I’m not grumpy. And
if I am it’s your fault.”
What happens in November?
ReplyDeleteI can tell you: some writers plan every detail in advance and march through their own writing like an army through enemy territory, conquering it chapter by chapter.
Others (my type) start with something small and use the writing to explore the idea or the characters with no very clear idea of where they are heading. They like to surprise themselves.
I don't know which type of writer has a harder time with revisions, but, remember, although revisions are necessary sometimes, they are absolutely not the point! Revisions do not necessarily improve writing. Sometimes something is pretty good first time around!
Are you entering a writing contest in November--is there some sort of write-a-novel-in-a-month contest?
ReplyDeleteIt's called NaNoWriMo (short for National Novel Writing Month). This will be my second year competing. It's a race against time to try to write 50k words in a first-draft manuscript of a novel. Last year I did too little planning, got stuck, and made a mess of things. I ended up having to do a bunch of back-tracking and it almost cost me the 50k. But I did make it anyways. I'm trying to do enough planning this year to make sure that doesn't happen again.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I just love planning.
http://grammar.about.com/od/advicefromthepros/a/How-To-Write-3-000-Words-Before-Breakfast-Every-Day.htm
ReplyDelete