Friday, June 8, 2012

Endless Possibilites

Insomniac #4 commented on Wednesday's post:

"Do you find that the first draft is so hard to write because the possibilities are endless and the ideas aren't fully formed that it's hard to know where everyone/everything fits best? Or is it just that starting a new project is a lot harder when you've done so much work on others?"
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What a great comment/question!

First, let me explain how I feel about it:

While writing the first draft, I can write freely, with no worry for adverbs, being verbs, repetition, or lousy description. I write to get the story out of my head and onto the page.

When I begin revising, my mindset must change. The purpose during revision is to clean up and tighten up the language so I can accurately portray to another person the images I see clearly in my own head.
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So to answer the first question from the comment: YES!

And to answer the second question: Not "harder" but different. It's not just switching gears, it's climbing out of the car I've been driving for over a year, and swapping the set of keys for a brand new car I've never driven before. I know where the clutch is, but I keep stalling until I get a "feel" for the new car.

I love the writing process, every aspect of it!!





12 comments:

  1. I find it harder to go back and revise. Great post. :)

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  2. I guess that makes you a writer! :D

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  3. Yes, yes, YES to the first question! The possibilities are endless, and I keep looking back and wondering if I missed a turn. For example, the original idea for my current project was to make it a slightly humorous, tongue-in-cheek MG novel. It's currently a deadly serious YA novel, and I keep wondering if I did the right thing.

    I love revising. And you said it perfectly. It's like driving a familiar car, but refining the trip.

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  4. I love the first draft. I love all those endless possibilities and setting out with only a vague idea of where I'm headed. I find that second mindset so much harder. I hate reigning in, I want to run around my world like a maniac again!

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  5. Interesting angles on both questions. I love first drafts and I love revising (initially anyway) - seeing the words and sentences get better is the payoff.

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  6. Interesting questions with helpful responses. Thanks.

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  7. Reading your post, as well as the comments here, has been very helpful. Yesterday, I began to revise a memoir.

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  8. Wow, my comment inspired its own blog post. I'm honored! :)

    I definitely feel like I slow myself down in the first draft because I'm trying to be too perfect: am I overusing the same word/phrase? Am I choosing the best word(s)? Do my characters sound too similar or one-dimensional? Really just have to relax and get the ideas out any way I can and then worry about making improvements.

    And your 'new car' analogy makes a lot of sense, too. Unless you're going from a short story to a three-volume series I'm guessing the degree of difficulty doesn't change. I bet the initial push to start over might be a little tough, at least after the first story is done.

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  9. I am learning this about the first draft on my second novel, which I writing during JuNoWriMo. The trouble I'm having with my first one (which I'm still working on after ENDLESS revisions) is because I didn't get it all down, before I started fixing it up. Great tip!

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  10. I'm with you! I like each stage for it's own different reasons.

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  11. I completely agree that all aspects of writing are enjoyable. I love revisions, even if I may get halfway through a huge revision sometimes only to realise I should probably start from scratch again. ;)

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