Love this…knowing when to let a piece ‘go’…like painting…some of them you could work on forever. I do love the challenge of rewriting-going deeper, into the forest, hoping to come out cleaner and fresher. :)
Also like how writing a piece can be a learning and nothing more - just for the exercise.
Writing for pleasure? I write more out of need…but there is pleasure when something works out the way I want. Pleasure is my reward. 😊
For me, there is a difference between writing the first draft and subsequent revisions. The first draft feels the most like "writing" to me. That said, I spend one-third of my time on a book writing the first draft and two-thirds revising it. The revision process is, in some ways, kind of peaceful -- until you reach the last two or three revisions, where it then can become tedious, to say the least.
May 10, 2023·edited Jun 8, 2023Liked by Alison Acheson
When I write fiction and poetry it is purely for pleasure. Both forms allow me to write in an unfiltered way, as I am in the cinema of my mind. I do go back and laboriously add the required scenic details that other readers need. I've recently switched to allowing dialogue free rein. It's less frustrating for sketching in a scene and recognizing the beats. For me writing blogs are like piano practice. Essential to remaining strong yet limber.
Your phrase "other readers" stands out; you're thinking of yourself as reader in addition to writer. That's a subtle and interesting shift! You're writing with your writer/editor/reader hats on... ?! Ah, and your viewer hat, too!
It comes from reading interviews over the phone. Some sentences make no sense when read aloud. For example, I could not understand Octavia Butler's incredible book "The Parable of the Sower." The text was so dense, I went into a fugue state. When I listened to it, all was made clear. The novel was actually oral storytelling. Actress Lynn Thigpen's performance was riveting.
A work of art is never finished, merely abandoned... Not sure who said that but this is what came to mind reading your great post, Alison. I find it hard to know when to stop re-writing and move on. It's usually when I start second guessing everything: The Title, the start, the end, the characters...everything. And I fear I'm f..king up as many things as I fix. That's when you really need someone outside of you to give you notes and some objective perspective. I give those I trust permission to say: STOP! THAT'S ENOUGH. YOUR WORK IS DONE HERE! (or at least as done as you'll ever be able to do...given your talents/limits). I am bad a falling in love with the new idea...and falling out of love with what drew me to write something in the first place. That's also a good time to move on. All that said - it's a good day if I'm re-writing one thing and also writing a new thing. The End remembers the Beginning :) Yes, great advice. It's what https://savethecat.com/ by Blake Snyder talks about. The opening image of a film / play / story should mirror the final image somehow. If the opening is of ISOLATION - someone alone on a beach, maybe the final image is one of COMMUNITY - the same person celebrating with friends/family/found family on a beach. cheers DG
So much truth in this, David! Thanks for the reminder: the End is the point at which you are about to move on. Or you are as satisfied as you can be.
When you start pushing the potatoes around the plate, and everyone else has left the table, and they're hoping we can now get to dessert... Yeah, that's it.
And there is a time when you either need other eyes OR you might feel some (varying!) degree of satisfaction: Done.
The falling in and out of love with the task/work--glad you speak to that, too. Yes.
Love this…knowing when to let a piece ‘go’…like painting…some of them you could work on forever. I do love the challenge of rewriting-going deeper, into the forest, hoping to come out cleaner and fresher. :)
Also like how writing a piece can be a learning and nothing more - just for the exercise.
Writing for pleasure? I write more out of need…but there is pleasure when something works out the way I want. Pleasure is my reward. 😊
"Pleasure is my reward." Good.
And like painting... sometimes that tinkering is just putting off moving on to the next.
For me, there is a difference between writing the first draft and subsequent revisions. The first draft feels the most like "writing" to me. That said, I spend one-third of my time on a book writing the first draft and two-thirds revising it. The revision process is, in some ways, kind of peaceful -- until you reach the last two or three revisions, where it then can become tedious, to say the least.
One-third/two-thirds. Yes. You really touch on the different emotional qualities to the different drafts and steps in the process!
When I write fiction and poetry it is purely for pleasure. Both forms allow me to write in an unfiltered way, as I am in the cinema of my mind. I do go back and laboriously add the required scenic details that other readers need. I've recently switched to allowing dialogue free rein. It's less frustrating for sketching in a scene and recognizing the beats. For me writing blogs are like piano practice. Essential to remaining strong yet limber.
Your phrase "other readers" stands out; you're thinking of yourself as reader in addition to writer. That's a subtle and interesting shift! You're writing with your writer/editor/reader hats on... ?! Ah, and your viewer hat, too!
It comes from reading interviews over the phone. Some sentences make no sense when read aloud. For example, I could not understand Octavia Butler's incredible book "The Parable of the Sower." The text was so dense, I went into a fugue state. When I listened to it, all was made clear. The novel was actually oral storytelling. Actress Lynn Thigpen's performance was riveting.
It seems important to keep a writing practice - I like how yours is writing a blog. Wonderful.
A work of art is never finished, merely abandoned... Not sure who said that but this is what came to mind reading your great post, Alison. I find it hard to know when to stop re-writing and move on. It's usually when I start second guessing everything: The Title, the start, the end, the characters...everything. And I fear I'm f..king up as many things as I fix. That's when you really need someone outside of you to give you notes and some objective perspective. I give those I trust permission to say: STOP! THAT'S ENOUGH. YOUR WORK IS DONE HERE! (or at least as done as you'll ever be able to do...given your talents/limits). I am bad a falling in love with the new idea...and falling out of love with what drew me to write something in the first place. That's also a good time to move on. All that said - it's a good day if I'm re-writing one thing and also writing a new thing. The End remembers the Beginning :) Yes, great advice. It's what https://savethecat.com/ by Blake Snyder talks about. The opening image of a film / play / story should mirror the final image somehow. If the opening is of ISOLATION - someone alone on a beach, maybe the final image is one of COMMUNITY - the same person celebrating with friends/family/found family on a beach. cheers DG
So much truth in this, David! Thanks for the reminder: the End is the point at which you are about to move on. Or you are as satisfied as you can be.
When you start pushing the potatoes around the plate, and everyone else has left the table, and they're hoping we can now get to dessert... Yeah, that's it.
And there is a time when you either need other eyes OR you might feel some (varying!) degree of satisfaction: Done.
The falling in and out of love with the task/work--glad you speak to that, too. Yes.
Thanks for weighing in!