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Making it up as I go along

Making it up as I go along

Tag Archives: Drafts

Second drafting

26 Sunday Jun 2016

Posted by Carol Lovekin in Uncategorized

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Book 2, Drafts, Editing, Writing

Island Life, Word Birds & Process #10

Writing a book – if you can pull it off – is a pretty cool trick. It happens however in layers and conjuring a second draft is part of the enchantment. It’s when the writer searches for the missing part of the spell that makes the whole thing work.

I’m here to tell you, in my case, there is no trickery. Too many of the words aren’t even there.

My tendency to edit as I go is a trait in myself I’ve settled for. Over the years I’ve tried to resist but it’s no good and that’s how it is. It does mean I’m inclined to take out rather a lot on the way. In the process I leave holes, and sometimes miss opportunities or connections.

Having killed a fair number of my darlings – before they even had time to plead extenuating circumstances – I’m now filling the spaces in between. Summoning the missing words in the hope my reader will assume they were there from the beginning.

Annex - Harlow, Jean_62

I’m taking my time with this second draft and enjoying the experience. Be that as it may, the question remains – the one that vexes all writers at this stage: how do we edit our work and know what’s good and what’s rubbish?

We do our best is the answer. Plug away, learn from our previous efforts and thank our lucky stars if we are fortunate enough to have a great editor. Someone we can hand the whole thing over to when it’s done.

Begin at the beginning … again…

12 Sunday Jun 2016

Posted by Carol Lovekin in Uncategorized

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Birds, Drafts, Mist, Writing

Island Life, Word Birds & Process #8

In summer, mist is a vaguer, less assertive thing than its winter sister. Having little resistance to the sun it burns off quickly. And in the sun’s absence, this lethargic heat will do it. Summer mist is short-lived but no less lovely.

You do have to get up early to catch it.

This morning I was. With only one remaining chapter left to write, I joined the birds and they, bless them, flung the final words my way.

The first draft of my SisterBook is done!

Davide Benati - Frangipane, 1989 - Copy

I’ve already begun a new pass. Because I edit as I go, the earlier parts of the story in particular are in reasonable shape. I do expect to be challenged once I near the final third.

What larks though! Another story down, another milestone reached: the ‘difficult second novel’ written.

Go me.

‘…a word is not a single and separate entity, but part of other words…’ *

17 Monday Aug 2015

Posted by Carol Lovekin in Uncategorized

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Dead Darlings, Drafts, Editing, Prose, Quotations, Virginia Woolf, Writing

It is the lot of a first draft to be the dumping ground for sundry swathes of ‘darling’ destined for the verbal killing fields. As I draw to the end of this new draft zero I ponder what comes next. Run off a hard copy, read it through in as few sittings as possible in order to get an idea of how it works as a story. Next I’ll arm myself with a bunch of sharp pencils, a note pad, a highlighter pen and a willingness to laugh wryly at myself, and begin the second pass. This is when I start giving myself advice and hopefully identify any massive plot holes and structural issues.

By the time I get to the fine-tuning however, something more will be required.

Compelling prose requires big words – lyrical, signature words drenched in clarity; paragraphs stopping us in our tracks, causing us to pause and sigh before carrying on. That said, too many words are worn out by constant overuse. Small and seemingly innocent, they congregate in clichéd clusters waiting for a gap in the narrative. Within the spell of a lovely sentence, these words often have no meaning and serve no purpose. Their only function is to render a perfect sentence cursed. I don’t mean proud, exquisite, conjuring words. What I’m talking about are the little ones, expressing nothing more than the bad habits of language. A beautiful sentence is rarely enhanced by dull, irrelevant words. (See title for good ‘but’ usage.)

Ironic perhaps to choose a Virginia Woolf quotation: she was after all partial to a bit of wordage. She also had an acute eye for the lyrical and she understood style. The individual writer chooses her style. Our voice tends to choose us; style is something else and can be considered. We can edit our style as we edit our narrative arcs, poke around in our plots and ravage our purple prose.

I’m getting ahead of myself: there are miles to go before I’m ready for this level of close editing. It doesn’t hurt to be reminded though and to that end, I best get a move on…

* Virginia Woolf

Smoke & possibly some mirrors

20 Monday Jul 2015

Posted by Carol Lovekin in Uncategorized

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Drafts, Not Writing, Writing

In my previous post I mentioned a lack of writing. (Due to circumstances & so forth.) In the interim, time played nicely & I’ve upped my wordcount considerably. The proverbial light lurks at the end of the customary tunnel.

Smoke conjuring spells apart, I may have invoked the odd mirror too & there is no guarantee mess has been entirely averted.

I’m closer than ever to the end of draft zero. It’s still tangled & in order to turn it into a bona fide First Draft, considerable editing will need to be undertaken.

Draft zero is written in order for me translate what is in my head into what I think I want to say. Find out I have anything to say. Get the vision down, however random & unformed; try not to stray too far from the plan. Above all, keep writing. Words on the page while the muse is with me.

At all costs, resist my inner ‘edit as I go’ persona. She is wilful & bossy & likes her own way. Once I’m done I’ll do a paper edit & try to fathom how I really want to say it.

Onward & sideways.

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