 12 questions about writing fiction-- Question # 2
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Oct. 4th, 2007 @ 01:11 am 
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One of my favorite movie fibs occurs during Amadeus, in which the character Salieri is stunned-- almost to insultedness-- that the first drafts of Mozart's sheet music bear no corrections, and appear almost as dictation from the divine.
When I later learned that Mozart's surviving manuscripts do reveal rewrites, I was a little disappointed that he was just like us, and not supernatural. Then I thought about it, and felt encouraged that perhaps such sublime stuff is attainable, through hard work. Which leads to Question # 2....
2) With everything there is in a scene to keep track of-- continuity, building suspense, maintaining the motivations for every individual character, making descriptions serve and sparkle, making dialogue inventive, fresh and "the way people talk," etc.-- how do you keep track of it all? Do you anticipate and plan ahead? Fix it all in rewrites? Somehow do it in medias res, and move on without returning?
Marika Christian:
Good Lord! When you put it like that, well – I had no idea that I was doing so much. Here is how I write. I honestly picture my book as a movie. I write it in scenes – I picture the character, everything like I an watching a movie. I do one, and then move to the next – and the next – and the next… I have a list of scenes I need to write on a post it now – and I just go down the list. On occasion I have to add a scene, move it around etc …but I do it like a movie. When I get 25 pages, I print them out and I edit them from content. I make notes in pencil to add, change, delete, or move different things. I'll write notes in the margin "Needs more here…" and I know what that means. I carry those 25 pages with me till I'm done, and I'll work on it everywhere. Coffee shops, laundy-mats, postal lines. I make the changes. I try to fix all the grammar mistakes that are horrible and glaring. Then I print it again, and I read it line by line for punctuation etc … It takes FOREVER! Then I print it again and pass it on to Aunt Julie who reads it again and gives me tips.
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'Nathan Burgoine:
Would it make me a bad writer to answer, "I don't"? When I'm writing, and I feel like I'm writing well, I find the characters tend to do most of the work for me. They'll talk the way they want to talk (if I can toot my own horn, dialogue is something I both enjoy and feel I do well). Continuity and suspense, and descriptive text I struggle with.
The first time I write a scene (or, more typically, a story), I just write it. The second time through, I work on descriptions, and topping up on foreshadowing. Often, I write on one-side of a page only, so I can flip it over and scribble 'foot-notes' on the other side to add in new scenes, lines, descriptive text, foreshadowing, or the like.
Then, when I do the re-write, I put all that in - and see if it works. Most of the time, the dialogue is usually the part I like and leave alone. But I certainly return to whatever I have written, often far too often, until I finally lean back and think, "I'm done." Then I send it to a few people I know will call me on crap writing, and they tell me what was crap (usually the same stuff I thought was delightful, deep, foreshadowing, etc), and I rake through it again.
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David Puterbaugh:
I try to juggle as much of the details as I can while writing, but the truth (for me, anyway) is that the story doesn’t come alive until the first rewrite.
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Timothy J. Lambert:
I'm human, so I'm bound to make lots of mistakes while writing. I reread as I go along, though, and usually manage to catch inconsistencies and errors. I try to keep an outline, maintain a list of characters, and make extensive notes. But I also have friends that will read my work and be brutally honest. Without them I'm nothing.
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Greg Herren:
I don't always write the same way. Sometimes I write organically; i.e. as it comes to me, then go back in later drafts and make sure it flows properly, there are no continuity errors, that the dialogue sounds real, etc.
Other times I plan, outline and organize. This too is not regimented; sometimes the outline is ambiguous and not much (i.e. "in this chapter Scotty finds out that his drug dealer has a twin.") or very detailed--a lengthy paragraph that covers what goes on in the chapter step by step.
I will say this: the more detailed and organized I am, the easier the writing process goes. I don't know why I don't do every book this way--but Scotty always seems to be, even when outlined, more loose and free flowing; writing Chanse is always more regimented. I don't know why this is.
And it's the same with short stories: when I start writing a short story, sometimes I have a vague notion in my head of who the characters are, what the story is, and how I want it to end, then sit down and let it pour out from my fingers through the keyboard--then go back and fix errors. Other times, I've synopsized the entire story in great detail, done character bios, etc.
I call my system 'bipolar writing.'
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Becky Cochrane:
I write a lot in my head, “blocking the scene,” to use a movie term, taking care of logistics—setting (description), movement/action—so that when I’m actually writing, those details flow out naturally and don't take a lot of my focus away from dialogue or the characters’ thoughts. That’s the extent of my planning ahead, other than a very few plot points.
I’m a constant re-reader and editor of both my short stories and novels while I’m writing. When I sit down to write, I reread what I’ve written before. Of course, with novels, I don’t read everything I’ve written, just the chapter or material immediately preceding what I’m working on. If I have to take a break from writing of more than a few days’ duration, I read it all again, start to finish. By the time I complete a novel, I’m usually sick of the first chapter. Sometimes I alter it just to be rid of the over-familiarity of it.
My constant editing process does help with continuity problems, particularly on collaborative writing, where they’re more likely to happen.
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(More Q & A to come....)
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wWhat Mark? Too busy to correct my spelling ... thanks buddy! :)
Look two w's in What ... another one!
You caught me. I recently discovered that I can just paste your answers from your e-mails, and don't have to retype them. I wish I'd known that, back in June, when my forearms were threatening to pop. : )
Oh, my. Retyping? You poor thing! (Especially if you were ever stuck retyping my endless babbling.)
I think I need to offer a course in "Word Processing for Writers." When I'm teaching it, I can sneak in all kinds of unwanted advice about quotation marks and apostrophes.
My answer seems so brief compared to the others. Let me see if I can't bulk it up some. I'd add that I do not always start a story at the beginning, but rather with the first scene that pops into my head. (Which most often is the same one that got me thinking about the story in the first place.) I then go on to the next scene that comes to me, and the next one, and then fill in the blanks later on. I like to have general idea of how things will unfold when I sit down to work on something, but for me the full story - with it's beginning, middle, and end - doesn't show itself until after I've pieced everything together, which is usually after the first rewrite.
Your original answer is fine, the way it is. : )
Speaking of revisions... LOL
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