The Dresden Files > DF Spoilers
Info about Peace Talks from Reading the WoJ section
morriswalters:
--- Quote from: KurtinStGeorge on September 03, 2019, 06:52:42 AM ---Someone asked Jim at Westercon how he was challenging himself to improve as a writer, because Jim had just stated that with every new novel he tells he tries to challenge himself to improve in at least one area of his writing, because that's how he gets better as a writer. Jim replied that he wants to work on streamlining his writing technique. Essentially he wants to work on telling the stories he wants to tell in fewer words. He said he wants to start doing this with the next Cinder Spires book and carry over any improvements he can make there into future Dresden Files novels too, so they won't have an ever increasing amount of words. So if Jim is able to do that, it should, when he gets the hang of it, shorten his writing time.
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Fifteen books in if he hasn't gotten a handle on it then I personally don't see it getting better. And if he starts a YA series it will be three books in sequence, rather than two.
Mira:
--- Quote from: morriswalters on September 03, 2019, 03:22:54 PM ---Fifteen books in if he hasn't gotten a handle on it then I personally don't see it getting better. And if he starts a YA series it will be three books in sequence, rather than two.
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Agreed.. I think he has spread himself too thin, fame works that way sometimes. I can understand wanting to move on to other projects, but then one should look at quality not quantity... If the short stories are an example of streamlining I think he is going down a rabbit hole, because they don't seem streamlined so much as rushed.. Something to be expected when one has deadlines for every ball one keeps in the air and there are at least a hundred of them..
Bad Alias:
--- Quote from: KurtinStGeorge on September 03, 2019, 06:52:42 AM ---So if Jim is able to [write the same story shorter], it should, when he gets the hang of it, shorten his writing time.
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I am a professional writer in that writing to communicate ideas is a large part of my job. A good portion of my education was on how to write well. Writing concisely while conveying your message effectively is hard. Trimming the fat is time consuming. It's probably the hardest thing for me to do in writing. I imagine it will take him longer to finish the series than it will take him to streamline the process to a point that would get us the series faster.
toodeep:
--- Quote from: Mira on September 03, 2019, 11:12:06 AM ---Hope he can perfect the technique for all our sakes...
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Oh God no! GRR Martin got in trouble writing one of his books because he told fans it was "basically done" after a year of writing and then took many more years to publish it. The reason was because when he read what he had written it didn't go far enough fast enough. He could have published, but wanted to finish the series in 7 books, so he literally took years editing and "working on his craft" to get it concise enough. I'm still not sure he really succeeded considering how many side stories and bits got cut out of the series without detriment to the overall story.
I don't think that Jim would fall prey to that, but it does scare me. Of course, on the other end of the spectrum in the "Robert Jordan" disease, where a very good 8-book series instead gets spread out over about 14. (shudder)
Regenbogen:
--- Quote from: morriswalters on September 03, 2019, 03:22:54 PM ---Fifteen books in if he hasn't gotten a handle on it then I personally don't see it getting better. And if he starts a YA series it will be three books in sequence, rather than two.
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I see it like this: Everything one does or can do has the potential for improvement because nobody and nothing is perfect.
If Jim wants to improve his writing it shows that he doesn't think of his work as being at its best. So I say 'go Jim' . I think his writing so far is great. You can see continuing improvement from Storm Front to Skin Game. So I'm very curious how his style will develop in future books.
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