On Editing.

Are you willing to murder your darlings? Uproot some well-loved plants? Jettison comfy old furniture? If so, you may have a calling as an editor.

--DS.

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   To write well, one must write a lot.
   To edit well, one must lop and chop and prune and hack and attack...whilst keeping an eye on the good stuff that was masked by underbrush, pretty but crowded flowerbeds, overhanging branches, and the like.

Most of us are hoarders rather'n tossers, eh? So too with writers. Gosh, I hold onto a comma as if it were an oldest friend, and a favorite phrase like a life preserver.

Some internal dialogue as I respond to the editing done on THE ANIMALS OF CHRISTMAS:

---"Hey, I liked that comma there. It made the reader pause for a sec before plowing on, just a breather so that the next phrase is seen as related-but-not-merely-more-of-same."

---"Hey, I liked that adverb, too!" I know, I know, 'Show em, don't tell em' is the right way. You should have picked me up on this chump whom I had "...casting glances greedily at the coin." It's hackneyed. I shoulda said, "His gaze drifted back to the shining gold coin a third time. Then a fourth." The first way tells you what to think...the second shows you the scene and lets you figger out for yrself the guy is greedy.

---"I wish I'd caught that earlier, but now that it's in proof format I cannot make big changes. Otherwise, I'd hack that messy ppgh up into a two or three additional sentences that were shorter and clearer."

---"Sheesh, every time I read this passage, I get a lump in my throat. Sure hope my reader(s???) will, too!"

What books to desert isle?

Yesterday I asked you what books you'd be happy to be marooned with on a desert isle...here's my list:

-Bible
-Tolkien's works
-Lewis' Space Trilogy and Narnia
-Since it is "just" one volume, my COMPLETE WORKS OF WM. SHAKESPEARE.

Interesting, they're all "classics." I guess there's something to be said for "standing the test of time."

Waiting to hear your list....

David

re-re-reading King's ON WRITING

A good book is still good on the second reading. A great book remains great on the third, fourth, and more!

--DLSmith, MD


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Okay, it's a vanity to make up my own quote and then cite it as if it were innately wise and inchoately profound. Guilty.

That said, great books are ones that I reread, by choice, repeatedly. What's on your list of such books?

My list will be posted later this week.

I'm reading Stephen King's ON WRITING yet again. Always both amusing and inspiring. Makes me want to write more, and more vividly. No boredom when the King is at the keyboard...can't say that my writing is always scintillating, but Stephen would be the first to agree. At least, about the first draft. I love the quote from his early boss, a newspaper editor:
   The first time you write the story, you write it for yourself.
   When you rewrite it, you are writing for others. Your task now is to cut out everything that isn't the story.

   Or, as the old-fashioned saying about editing goes, "You need to be able to kill your darlings." That refers to loverly words and well-turned phrases as well as to your characters.

Okay, let me know what books you'll be bringing to your desert isle that'll be good to read and re-re-read!

Talking about creative writing.

Them as can, do.
Them as cain't, teach.
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Hmmm. Saturday was my day to teach about writing, focusing on the large, complex work (novels, screenplays). I suggested that we are grounded by the theology of creativity.

I focused the first part of my talk what creativity means, theologically, drawing a lot from Dorothy Sayers' THE MIND OF THE MAKER. This is a subject that I love to talk about (so bear with me!): since we are created in the image of God...just as He spoke and the world leapt into being...so, too, our creative use of words brings new worlds, new characters, and new stories to life.

I frequently referenced a favorite book, Stephen King's ON WRITING...as in this blog posting: http://davionwriting.blogspot.com/2013/05/immense-possibilities.html


If interested, link to my handout and notes. Link to my own writing.

Okay, enough with the links and references. My talk yesterday was intended to both encourage my fellow writers, and to offer some instruction and (what I hope were) some tantalizing ideas, concrete ideas such as:

--let your characters be themselves, don't force them into a mold of your own making. Just because I like to read doesn't mean all my characters need to be book-lovers. Just because I have a certain belief system I shouldn't force my story line to hew to my own theological preferences.

--let your characters be real: they are opinionated, scruffy, and nobody is ever a hunnerd percent good or evil...even a bad guy still loves his ____ (mother, cat, elementary-school chum)!

--let your story emerge from your characters: trying to predict a story is hard when you have strong characters who mayn't react exactly as expected, desired, or planned.

--write about what you know, sure...but, what you know may be as broad as "love" or "just being doggone human."

--write so that the reader still has room for their own imagination--don't over-describe. If I tell you that the man's charcoal pinstriped suit drapes his slim muscular frame perfectly, and that the pucker in the knot of his pink tie is aligned precisely with the midpoint of his button-down collar soft charcoal shirt, with the glimmer of silver cufflinks appearing as he gestures broadly to accompany his slow, drawling speech...well, I have painted a picture, 'tis true. However, if I told you, "Look up the words 'elegant' and 'gentleman' in the encyclopedia, and you'd find this pin-striped Southerner's picture"... well, I've left you room to see an image that YOUR brain created--you'll know exactly what he looks look without wading through my excessively descriptive prose.

--write so that the reader can see/smell/hear what's happening...but, again, use broad brush-strokes, not fussy fine strokes that, while lovely, slow the reader down.

--chaque-un a son gout...to each their own.

--read lots, write lots.

Have you read a poorly written work lately?--that's one of the best ways to learn good writing, I've discovered. (I'm hoping you're learning bad examples from other than moi!)

Have you read something excellent? Do tell!

Immense Possibilities.

     After reading the story that I'd admitted to basically copying, my mother was disappointed. She gave me back the pad and said, 'Write one of your own, Stevie....'

     I remember an immense feeling of possibility at the idea, as if I had been ushered into a vast building filled with closed doors and had been given leave to open any I liked. There were more doors than any one person could open in a lifetime, I thought (and still think).

 

--Stephen King, ON WRITING.

 

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I love that "immense feeling of possibility" that is frankly open to any and all creative pursuits. Gosh, when you look at nut-case artists like Jackson Pollack (famed for his "splatter" paintings) or crazy writers or musicians--golly, all we need to do is put up our best effort and then keep refining.

 

Overwhelmed by too many possibilities? Nice problem to have--pick something and get started. Can't get started? Well, take your favorite excuse and stand it on its head. One guy who wanted to be a painter...couldn't afford to. Or so he thought...until he found scrap wood, begged some left-over house paint...and, there he was, painting and having himself a fine time, creating, learning, and recreating.

 

Painting, like writing, is great--don't like it?--paint over it!

I love King's image of that vast building, full of doors. I'd like to find a room with a view and a comfy chair next to a bookcase...and my computer on the library table right beside me. Buh-bye, world...after I read for bit, I'm going to write about a new world, one that I'm creating, right now!

 

Got any immense possibilities looking you in the eye?