Writing Fast
October 8, 1999
6:54 a.m.
I figure a lot of the folks who stop by here these days are submitting to MZB S&S anthology, so I'll let everyone know that I received a rejection for "Separated by Sky" yesterday. You all can expect your acceptances pretty soon! I've spent the morning working on my "gazebo" story--currently titled "Gazebo" (oddly enough). It won't stay that way for long, of course. I'm struggling with it as I go. I plotted it originally at WotF, and depending on the moment I'll either credit myself with a draft of the story there or not. Truth is, I did write a draft there. But it was really sketchy. So if you're a "glass if half full" person, I wrote it there. If you're a "half empty" person, you'll scoff at me. But reality is what reality is. And in this case, reality is a total rewrite for draft two. So the question is really pretty well moot. I think this is an advantage of the WotF-taught style of fast writing, though. If you write something quickly, it may not be as good as if you take a little more time (of course, it may be better than if you write slowly, but that's another branch of the logic tree, and we'll leave that part be for now). But writing quickly lets you examine a large part of the story immediately. What's the most efficient way to buy a suit coat? Do you sit at home dreaming about it, and drawing up measurements and penciling in your thoughts on color and style before you go to the store? Sure, you can. And sure, it works. But it can be a bit more efficient to just go to the store and try some on. Maybe plaid really does work for you? [grin] This is an advantage of "write fast." But you cannot avoid the fact that you need to undestand STORY, no matter what you do. If you write fast, and have no idea of what's wrong with your stories, then you're probably wasting time because then when you step back to look at them, you have no idea of how to fix the spaghetti code you just threw down. I've been doing this a while. I undestand story better than I once did. And this morning I'm fixing what went wrong in the first draft. Tomorrow, it should be "Done." Of course, then comes the real revising. :)   have a good day.  Daily Persistence is © Ron Collins |
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"Writing is 95% mechanics and 5% art and inspiration; if it ever becomes 90% and 10%, you're probably talking Nobel Prize." Mike Resnick |
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