McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

Difficult little toddlers, first drafts & writing rules

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Aludra:
As a reader, not a writer, 3 observations:

1. Meeting a publisher's deepest desires is becoming slightly less relevant.  Calling someone self published is no longer an insult.  Break the rules, submit to a publisher, publish anyways and link me the purchase/sample page. :P

2. I love prosey language in what I read. Most of my favorite authors are "wordy". I think being 'fed' Dr Suess as my 'mother's milk' of books lead me to love well written language and the sounds it makes for what they are, and not rely on action and dialogue alone to keep me involved in a story. 

3. "Avoid word repetition & action repetition" is a rule that I THOROUGHLY agree with.  It really pulls me out of SOD and makes me grit my teeth when I see redundancy.  Use the opportunity to be more descriptive, please! I live for details and immersion.

I need to go buy that Brust shirt now, and see what other designs he's come up with. That man is a genius.

Razil:
I agree with Aludra as both a reader and an aspiring writer. Most of those rules make my eyes twitch. Particularly since most of my favorite authors liberally ignore them. They can be helpful,but also hinder. I spent a year and a half in fiction workshops run by a resident author at my university, using the Browne&king book. After the first draft,I threw it aside and broke rules all the time.I was the only one to do so, so I was the only one whose work stood out, ina good way. I think those rules are wonderful when they fit the story you are trying to tell, but are a pain to force where they make things worse.

That teacher gave the best advice I have received thus far: "Write anything you want, however you want. Then fix it. Then do it again. Somewhere along the way, you'll find what's right." He also said, "Writing is easy. Rewriting is the hardest thing you will ever do. Writing doesn't make you an author, rewriting does."

OZ:

--- Quote ---*’my mother’, ‘my father’, ‘my parents’ In 1st POV you are inside your character’s mind; your character will say, “Mother.” You might have an historical conscious decision to do this. If so, be aware that editors see it as a ‘beginners’ error. Jill Santopolo, author, editor, goddess.

--- End quote ---

I know that Neurovore already mentioned this one but I struggle with it as well. If I am talking or writing to most people, I will say "my mother" since the assumption is that they also have a mother that is different than mine. The obvious exception to this is if I am talking to one of my siblings. In most first person POV that I read the character is telling the story to me, the reader. Unless I am supposed to be a sibling of the writer/main character, I would expect to hear him say "my mother" unless, possibly, he or she was very young.

I do know people that will simply say Mother or Father (or Mom or Dad) regardless of the person they are speaking to but I have always thought it awkward.

meg_evonne:
 I've been reading recently with an eye toward the rules above.

'Tighten' is not gutting a work. Even going back to verbose Dickens, you will find that the rules are usually followed. This was further noted as I read my first Game of Thrones. Description of place for example isn't random, but specific. It might have the flavor of meandering, but when you decipher it carefully--wow--it is all set up.

'Tighten' means no filler on the pages; it doesn't mean that you can't drop your reader into the maelstrom of your world until it clings like a second skin. In fact, for some writers, this is essential.  However, the difference in quality isn't in the length of the 'tightening process' but in the chosen preciseness or purposeful lack of preciseness of your speedy arrow that counts.

We can all confess as we revise our work that some description is foreboding, foretelling, revealing, etc--but some of it is crap the reader doesn't need, nor wants to know. Yes, we needed to know it, but we don't need to share literally everything with the reader, letting them fill in the blanks themselves as a participant.

Now, as to Game of Thrones, just how much does HBO subscription cost, because this work is bloody brilliant.  (I will give boredom on the first few chapters, but after that--pure gold.)

spelling check edit.  client came in... ;-)

Aludra:

--- Quote from: meg_evonne on April 15, 2011, 03:21:48 PM --- I've been reading recently with an eye toward the rules above.

'Tighten' is not gutting a work. Even going back to verbose Dickens, you will find that the rules are usually followed. This was further noted as I read my first Game of Thrones. Description of place for example isn't random, but specific. It might have the flavor of meandering, but when you decipher it carefully--wow--it is all set up.

'Tighten' means no filler on the pages; it doesn't mean that you can't drop your reader into the maelstrom of your world until it clings like a second skin. In fact, for some writers, this is essential.  However, the difference in quality isn't in the length of the 'tightening process' but in the chosen presicness or purposeful lack of presciceness of your speedy arrow that counts.

We can all confess as we revise our work that some description is foreboding, foretelling, revealing, etc--but some of it is crap the reader doesn't need, nor wants to know. Yes, we needed to know it, but we don't need to share literally everything with the reader, letting them fill in the blanks themselves as a participant.

Now, as to Game of Thrones, just how much does HBO subscription cost, because this work is bloody brilliant.  (I will give boredom on the first few chapters, but after that--pure gold.)


--- End quote ---

I think HBO scrip price depends on a few things, but we added it to our package for 10$/month.

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