The power of the written word...

[gmw]

I was browsing my journal today, looking for something, and came across two related paragraphs that I thought might spark some discussion here. I will post them as they were originally written (7 years ago):

5-Sept: Another unexpected thing about writing was how powerful is the written word. While ideas were still just in my head they would swirl around and change and adapt, but once they appeared on the screen in front of me they took on a strange sort of permanence. Once the words were written they were reluctant to change in any but the most superficial manner. I've discovered the hard way that this is not always a good thing, an author does need to be able to say goodbye to those parts that don't work, but what I discovered was that saying goodbye to an already written word was much much harder than saying goodbye to an idea in my mind.

23-Oct: The other side of the argument about the permanence of the written word is that their permanence is quite possibly what makes writing work. If you didn't feel that attachment then none of your work would take on the presence, substance, permanence, required to form a basis for more writing. It's like not being able to put up walls or a ceiling of a house until the foundations are down. The trick is to be able to distinguish between those words that are like paint or wall-hangings and those that are foundations and walls and those that support the roof – the load-bearing parts of the book, and the distinction is not always obvious. A great many words form part of the feeling of the book, you cannot necessarily just change a few of them without making that part feel somehow different and separate to the rest.

[arjaybe]

Thank goodness for those things that are effable, or we'd all be gibbering madmen going around and around an idea without ever being able to get it down just right.

[BookCat]

It sounds like you put a lot of work and thought into every word of your first draft so when it's 'born' it's as perfect as a new baby, and untouchable. I find this strange, especially because you don't outline. I'm an outliner but my first drafts are 'just getting the idea down' with the thought that 'I'll make it right later'. So my drafts are infinitely changeable, I could spend forever editing. It's the same with painting (I paint cats); the pictures are never really finished, there's always something I see from the corner of my eye that I could just touch up a bit.

Your view inhibits editing, mine means I'm never satisfied with a work. There must be a happy medium.

[gmw]

Originally Posted by arjaybe

Thank goodness for those things that are effable, or we'd all be gibbering madmen going around and around an idea without ever being able to get it down just right.

Hmm... I'm not sure how to take that - especially since there are some days when becoming a gibbering madman seems likely ... and browsing through my writing journal makes me wonder if it has already happened.

Originally Posted by BookCat

It sounds like you put a lot of work and thought into every word of your first draft so when it's 'born' it's as perfect as a new baby, and untouchable. I find this strange, especially because you don't outline. I'm an outliner but my first drafts are 'just getting the idea down' with the thought that 'I'll make it right later'. So my drafts are infinitely changeable, I could spend forever editing. It's the same with painting (I paint cats); the pictures are never really finished, there's always something I see from the corner of my eye that I could just touch up a bit.

Your view inhibits editing, mine means I'm never satisfied with a work. There must be a happy medium.

If only my first drafts were perfect. I still spend months trying to clean them up. I constantly have to fight the feeling that they are untouchable, and that's what makes editing so much like work for me.

For the main part I don't mind copy-editing, going through and refining the flow of conversations and scenes, again and again until it seems right - though I still have a strong tendency to want to keep certain parts as they were first written - but development editing I find very difficult.

What I try to do is create an outline of the story alongside my first draft (written as the draft is written), and this gives me an overview that aids structural editing - but still doesn't make it easy.

Intellectually I know that you are right - that the first draft is just getting it down and I can make it right later. But the way I write makes it rather more difficult to accept that emotionally. I have this feeling that the characters were talking to me, guiding the path of the story through much of the writing, and so the first draft carries considerable emotional attachment. This may sound a little silly, and it sort of is, but it's the way stories form for me; they don't appear in full, they sort of shape themselves. (It's not quite that straightforward, a lot of background work goes on while the draft is being written, and that also helps to shape what happens.)

It always seems to me that if the story were infinitely malleable (which, of course, it is) then the first draft would be meaningless - which I don't like to accept. But at some point (it doesn't have to be the first draft, and perhaps it shouldn't be) the story has to solidify enough for each part of the story to be able to rely on the other parts. We just have to find that point, and it's seems to be different in every story I create.

[Lemurion]

To me, the written word represents both telepathy and immortality. As long as people read what I write, my thoughts will live on in their brains.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by Lemurion

To me, the written word represents both telepathy and immortality. As long as people read what I write, my thoughts will live on in their brains.

I read your post, and I now convey immortality unto thee! You meant this post, right?

[Penforhire]

To paraphrase, "Look on my words, ye Mighty, and despair!"

[E.M.DuBois]

Originally Posted by gmw

5-Sept: Another unexpected thing about writing was how powerful is the written word. While ideas were still just in my head they would swirl around and change and adapt, but once they appeared on the screen in front of me they took on a strange sort of permanence. Once the words were written they were reluctant to change in any but the most superficial manner. I've discovered the hard way that this is not always a good thing, an author does need to be able to say goodbye to those parts that don't work, but what I discovered was that saying goodbye to an already written word was much much harder than saying goodbye to an idea in my mind.

For me, I feel more the opposite. It’s not necessarily when it’s on paper, but when it feels right in the mind that it becomes “fact” within my fiction. This is something I’ve felt many times. But for me, once the notion is there, it will stay until I’ve written it. And the more and more I think on it, it more it’ll feel right. Like with the ebook I just published. It was ALL permanent when I wrote it down, and all the times I proofread it. But guess what? Now that I’ve read a few critiques on here, and I’ve thought, “Okay, there were scenes that could be told better, or just cut out,” I immediately thought of the scene where Lance is looking for Nina at his school. There’re whole chunks that don’t need to be there. I’ve already sat down to start chopping out the boring parts (boring to me to read over, specifically), thinking of how to make the segment suspenseful instead. All because I mulled it over, and the feeling that it had to happen became stronger and stronger until finally I had to do it or I wouldn’t get any sleep. It’s like, once I get the notion that I can do it, I already know that I must do it. So I plan out how it would be best to do so, what can be taken out and the scene will still convey the same thing, and just make it more fun to read.

[gmw]

Originally Posted by E.M.DuBois

For me, I feel more the opposite. It’s not necessarily when it’s on paper, but when it feels right in the mind that it becomes “fact” within my fiction. [...]

My goodness, that would make development editing even harder - brain surgery!

Seriously, though, I do find it fascinating to see how different the writing experience can be for different people. We all face the same problem at the end, turning what we've put down into something we hope others will enjoy reading (all the different sorts of editing required), but we seem to get to that point in very different ways.

[E.M.DuBois]

Originally Posted by gmw

My goodness, that would make development editing even harder - brain surgery!

Seriously, though, I do find it fascinating to see how different the writing experience can be for different people. We all face the same problem at the end, turning what we've put down into something we hope others will enjoy reading (all the different sorts of editing required), but we seem to get to that point in very different ways.

It really does make it difficult for me to edit sometimes. Which is why I’d LOVE to have an editor or ANY kind, but my bank account says that’s not happening.

And I feel the exact same way. It’s why I love talking with other writers. That difference of experience might offer a needed perspective for myself. Though, this difference in developmental strategies also means that when one writer is asking for advice, the tips that a dozen writers might give might not help out at all. Even if I don’t use the advice that I’m given, I do love hearing it and hearing about the process that led them to giving such advice. Why did it work for them? Might it work for me? Can it help me learn about myself, even if not directly applied to my work?

[gmw]

Originally Posted by E.M.DuBois

[...]Even if I don’t use the advice that I’m given, I do love hearing it and hearing about the process that led them to giving such advice. Why did it work for them? Might it work for me? Can it help me learn about myself, even if not directly applied to my work?

Yes, when it comes to "how we work" and advice should be interpreted as "this is what works for me" - and it may or may not be worth trying.

But when it comes to refining the results, advice starts to coalesce into something stronger - especially when the advice is coming from multiple sources - as you have experienced for yourself recently .

To put it another way: how we produce our first complete drafts will vary quite dramatically, but what we have to do to take that from draft to publication (and get a good result) actually follows a remarkably consistent path that should not be ignored. (Until such time as you have the experience to know what you can safely ignore - and even then, doubt yourself.) This is how I know that being excessively precious about what I wrote as part of the first draft is a mistake - but knowing that still doesn't make it easy to wield the scissors.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by Lemurion

To me, the written word represents both telepathy and immortality. As long as people read what I write, my thoughts will live on in their brains.

And as we have the writings of people from hundreds and even thousands of yrs ago (Plato an Aristotle to name just two) we can in effect sit at their feet and learn what they have to teach and (in the case of the ancient playwrights) what they have to show us for our entertainment. Books are like a shared dream between the author and the reader.