It used t be "writing novels sucks," but not anymore. For most writers, novels take awhile. The fact that I'm slower than most writers is something I don't particularly like, but I've accepted it to some degree. Some of this slowness is lack of time (amazing what even "just" being a sub can do to your life), some of it is lack of focus (particularly with the routine blown away and not having had much of a chance to return), but some of it is method. NPB (Novel Plot Building) takes me awhile. But that time is better than never finishing, which is what I used to do and why I used to hate novel writing. It may have been the natural length of the stories I created, but there was certainly nothing natural about it to me.
And then I developed NPB and the problem was solved. For writing the early drafts of novels. Shorts and poetry have never been a problem for me -- I could get a single short written in one day, sometimes 2. So far only one short has ever taken longer to get a complete first draft ("The Reckoning").
What's hurting me now is revising. "Painted" took me 6 days to revise. And it's not even that complicated a story. A chapter of Assassin's can take me 10 days or more to get through for a 4th round revision. Of course, Assassin's has some very specialized concerns -- for me, Alden is more poetic in nature. Poetic prose isn't all that easy to write. Add in issues that I'm having with trying to fit in modern language as well, and I'm sure you can see the problems. Every line needs ot be looked at carefully. I have to listen to how everything flows. The good news os the v5 revisions tend to be much easier -- all I'm doing is smoothing things out.
Unfortunately, I think these focused revisions for Assassin's are affecting how I revise everything else. Yes there needs to be an attention to language, to sound, but not at the same level. My other stories do not need to be poetic. In fact, if I want to maintain the difference between most my other writing and Alden writing, they shouldn't be poetic. They need to have a different flow. One that works for them, but is sharper, cleaner.
I know one of my favorite authors, Patricia McKillip, has made me more aware of words. Perhaps her writing combined with my revisions on Assassin's has made me more aware of my writing and where I want stories to go. this may be a good thing. But it also makes revisions even slower than writing, and it bothers me. Maybe not so much that they're slower than the actual initial drafting, but at how slow they are. A short story like "Painted" shouldn't take a week. Granted, there's a lot to do with focus (reminder to self: PS2 -- Cool toy. Don't let it take over.) and a lot to do with time (among the many issues last week was my son who is going through a tough time right now, and that means he requires more of my attention), but taking longer than 2 or 3 days to revise 3500 words is too long. Maybe I can't be Miss Zippy when writing and revising, but I can probably be faster than I am. I know i used to be slower at the writing and faster at the revising, and now I'm just plain slow and that bothers me.
And this problem is why I have difficulty approaching stories that need more than a revision. "Ravani's Dance" started off as a piece of fanfic. Names got changed, a few things got switched up, but it still wasn't working. My plan is to approach it this week, keeping elements of the original story, but making some major changes. This is revising but more than revising. It requires me to look at the story in a new way. And I've always found that hard to do. Perhaps that's another issue i have with revising itself: looking at these words I've written in a new way so I can find a better phrasing.
But isn't this what writers do? Envision the world in a new and different way? If I can't do that in my revisions, what hope is there in my writing? Since so many say they like my stories, I must be doing some re-envisioning just fine. I re-envision every day when I write. And that's what I need to tap into -- that success, that creativity. With that, i can come up with a new attitude about revising. Will it make the revision process go faster for me? Probably not. But it will make it suck a lot less.
It's not revising, which sucks. It's re-envisioning, which is my job.
At least you are being slow and thorough, rather than fast and messy. :)
Posted by: Candi | 08/08/2006 at 06:53 AM
Oh, I have my fast and messy moments -- usually when I'm working on the first draft. I think my problem is not that I'm thorough -- this is a good thing, but that I take too long. I'd be happy with 3 or 4 days for those 3500 words, but a week is just too long. Hopefully thinking of it as re-envisioning instead of revising will make the process easier for me in a way and maybe a little faster.
That's the theory anyway. lol
Posted by: Domy | 08/08/2006 at 09:02 AM