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[Writing] Thoughts on Revision
Aug. 17th, 2010 12:23 pm1) ADoS chapter is SO CLOSE to being done...probably about 4 pages to go! Quite happy about this...this took a hell of a lot longer than it really should have, but considering it's the first chapter, and the Writer's First Law of First Chapters is "Thou shalt write craptastically until thou hast some sort of grasp, however tenuous, on the novel's plot, and thou shalt pull out all thine hairs on thy head until said chapter is no longer craptastic", I think I did a pretty good job of absolving it of craptasticity. Hopefully the upcoming chapters won't be as hellish...
2) I've been thinking a lot about![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jimvanpelt's LJ entry about reader expectations. I find it interesting that I've seen and read this kind of advice many times over the years, from writers to Writer's Market to Writer's Digest and elsewhere...and yet only now did it truly sink in to the extent that it has. I think it's because I was understanding the message behind it, but I was looking at it from the wrong angle. I think (and I've been told by many readers/critters) that though the story's good, there's something there that's missing. emmalyon said it best that I tend to write things that make sense to me but not necessarily to everyone else. While I understood that, I never quite *got* it until Jim's post. Well, not entirely...I *got* it, but I was trying to shoehorn it into my existing writing rather than changing my writing to fit what that idea. That said, this is why my revision as of late has been long, slogging, and hair-pull inducing, but it's worth it, and I'm enjoying it nonetheless. THIS is exactly the kind of challenge I truly enjoy in this field, strange as that may sound. There's nothing quite like the feeling of reading your own stuff with the satisfaction that it's not just satisfactory to your own tastes, but is good enough that readers will enjoy it.
3) On the other hand, the slog I have to go through doing so can be frustrating at times. Still...carpe diem and all that. :)
2) I've been thinking a lot about
jimvanpelt's LJ entry about reader expectations. I find it interesting that I've seen and read this kind of advice many times over the years, from writers to Writer's Market to Writer's Digest and elsewhere...and yet only now did it truly sink in to the extent that it has. I think it's because I was understanding the message behind it, but I was looking at it from the wrong angle. I think (and I've been told by many readers/critters) that though the story's good, there's something there that's missing. emmalyon said it best that I tend to write things that make sense to me but not necessarily to everyone else. While I understood that, I never quite *got* it until Jim's post. Well, not entirely...I *got* it, but I was trying to shoehorn it into my existing writing rather than changing my writing to fit what that idea. That said, this is why my revision as of late has been long, slogging, and hair-pull inducing, but it's worth it, and I'm enjoying it nonetheless. THIS is exactly the kind of challenge I truly enjoy in this field, strange as that may sound. There's nothing quite like the feeling of reading your own stuff with the satisfaction that it's not just satisfactory to your own tastes, but is good enough that readers will enjoy it.3) On the other hand, the slog I have to go through doing so can be frustrating at times. Still...carpe diem and all that. :)
