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mugenmineStuck
Draft 3
Total @ 19,283
I was hoping that![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
percygranger's prediction that the draft would be better than I expected would be a reality, but unfortunately it's actually the opposite. Holy crap there's so much work that needs to be done. My first read through left me a bit numb. That kind of numb you get when you suddenly realize that you are light years behind where you hoped to be. My second idea was to shelve it and call it a loss. I just don't know if the story is strong enough to want to plough through it. My third idea was that I was a hack and really shouldn't be doing this kind of thing, but that faded after sleeping on it, and sleeping through 4 alarms and being late to work this morning.
Idea 4 is that I think I'm going to keep on working it.
My plan at this point is to read through it again with post it notes and mark where things need to be changed that will make it all consistent with the story I want to tell. Seriously, if you start telling one story (because you're trying to feel it out as you draft) and then by the end you realize you're telling another story... well you're going to have a lot of work to make that shit consistent. So that's my first challenge. Get the basic bits right.
From there I start the cull. Holy crap the thing needs at least a 25% word reduction.
My excruciating second draft DID clean up the prose. It's not horrible, but I find parts of it BORING, which is an even greater sin. A story can not be boring. It just can't. I mean not to the writer at the VERY least, yo!
Parts of it are okay, surprisingly, the actiony/case bits which I loathed writing are the stronger parts as well as the final epic scene scene, I kind of like as well. Though I realized that a huge middle section I had added to the final scene REALLY doesn't belong there which kind of kills me, but I'm gonna axe it because well it stops the flow. Streamlining is key. Does it fit the theme? If yes, keep. If not, remove. Kitchen sinking = bad.
So yeah now this just seems more like a challenge. I hate that the story doesn't convey what I want it to. I had that fear going in and I've questioned if I just don't have the skills/nuance to get what I want to get across at this point, and that's not a self criticism thing, it's just something that needs to be thought about.
And another part of me is like fuck it mugen it's a fic, but I can't just fuck it. It's a story first and foremost. And I can't put a story out there if it's not the story I want to tell. And I can't put a story out there unless I think it's good. And as of today it's just not.
On a positive note, I completed March without breaking the chain and am ahead of plan for GYWO. So that's something :-)
Draft 3
Total @ 19,283
I was hoping that
percygranger's prediction that the draft would be better than I expected would be a reality, but unfortunately it's actually the opposite. Holy crap there's so much work that needs to be done. My first read through left me a bit numb. That kind of numb you get when you suddenly realize that you are light years behind where you hoped to be. My second idea was to shelve it and call it a loss. I just don't know if the story is strong enough to want to plough through it. My third idea was that I was a hack and really shouldn't be doing this kind of thing, but that faded after sleeping on it, and sleeping through 4 alarms and being late to work this morning.Idea 4 is that I think I'm going to keep on working it.
My plan at this point is to read through it again with post it notes and mark where things need to be changed that will make it all consistent with the story I want to tell. Seriously, if you start telling one story (because you're trying to feel it out as you draft) and then by the end you realize you're telling another story... well you're going to have a lot of work to make that shit consistent. So that's my first challenge. Get the basic bits right.
From there I start the cull. Holy crap the thing needs at least a 25% word reduction.
My excruciating second draft DID clean up the prose. It's not horrible, but I find parts of it BORING, which is an even greater sin. A story can not be boring. It just can't. I mean not to the writer at the VERY least, yo!
Parts of it are okay, surprisingly, the actiony/case bits which I loathed writing are the stronger parts as well as the final epic scene scene, I kind of like as well. Though I realized that a huge middle section I had added to the final scene REALLY doesn't belong there which kind of kills me, but I'm gonna axe it because well it stops the flow. Streamlining is key. Does it fit the theme? If yes, keep. If not, remove. Kitchen sinking = bad.
So yeah now this just seems more like a challenge. I hate that the story doesn't convey what I want it to. I had that fear going in and I've questioned if I just don't have the skills/nuance to get what I want to get across at this point, and that's not a self criticism thing, it's just something that needs to be thought about.
And another part of me is like fuck it mugen it's a fic, but I can't just fuck it. It's a story first and foremost. And I can't put a story out there if it's not the story I want to tell. And I can't put a story out there unless I think it's good. And as of today it's just not.
On a positive note, I completed March without breaking the chain and am ahead of plan for GYWO. So that's something :-)
no subject
Date: 2014-04-02 03:36 am (UTC)You always make me curious, talking about word reduction. Like, okay, you wrote stuff that's not completely necessary to the story, but what specifically needs to go? Do you describe too much? Is there extraneous dialogue? It's fascinating to me that people can actually write too much. I'm not sure I've ever really done that beyond a random scene here or there...
But yay for chaining and getting ahead for GYWO! One is cool, both are really awesome.
no subject
Date: 2014-04-02 04:31 am (UTC)But yes! When I first draft I add EVERYTHING in, some scenes I write even though I don't think I'll keep them in, I'd like to have a fuller range of stuff to be able to pare down from. And on a sentence level, I throw in tons of description, overly wordy sentence, even the same idea twice in a sentence or I often throw in two adjective that mean the same thing and I don't worry about it, because I know that when I go through it I'm going to start cutting all of the fat.
I throw in ideas that I think I may want to tackle and see if I can fit them in and if not I cut out whole scenes.
And yes I through in all the dialogue, ideas that are way too long and that people wouldn't say, then I cut out most of it and leave just hints... People leave out so much when they speak but I like to have the whole picture there so I know what is left unsaid...
Yikes, so much estra stuff in there! Lots of room for cutting!
hmmm now I'm wondering:
Switch Draft 1: 18521
Switch Draft 5: 15265
okay, now back to the writing! I'm on chapter 3 of my next fic. I'm taking a wee break from my current one to try to wrap my head around it, but the words have to go somewhere!
Hope you are well. Let me check and see if you have a new blog post :-)
xoxox
mm