![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rj_andersonI suspect I've used that subject line before, but really, what could be more appropriate? I feel like I've been on a long journey these past couple of months, wandering through the misty wastelands of my own imagination without knowing where I'd end up, or whether it would be worth the trip when I got there. However, I am happy to say that as of yesterday I was able to turn in a complete draft of Swift to my editor -- and that yes, it is a story, and I'm pleased with it.
Erin Bow has just written an excellent post about What it's like to finish a book: or, one writer's neurosis in three stages which sums up my own feelings at the moment pretty well. Except that she and I differ in one significant aspect: she writes that "editing doesn’t produce the adrenaline to which one can become addicted in the rush of finishing a book. Certainly it doesn’t fill the same place in the heart..." Whereas for me, the revision stage sometimes does produce that kind of ecstatic rush, and it is definitely dearer to my heart than the thrash-and-flail process of first drafting. Once I know where the story's going (and that there is a story), I can stop worrying about the plot and concentrate on the details of character, dialogue, and the little touches of worldbuilding that will take the book to the next level.
But that will come in a few weeks, once my editor's had the chance to go over the manuscript and write me one of her lovely insightful letters suggesting all the ways in which it can be better. All sorts of things are bound to change in the ensuing revision process, and that'll be a challenge of its own. But for the moment I'm content. Not to mention excited about the potential not only of this particular novel, but of the book(s) to come... and that's a nice place to be.
Erin Bow has just written an excellent post about What it's like to finish a book: or, one writer's neurosis in three stages which sums up my own feelings at the moment pretty well. Except that she and I differ in one significant aspect: she writes that "editing doesn’t produce the adrenaline to which one can become addicted in the rush of finishing a book. Certainly it doesn’t fill the same place in the heart..." Whereas for me, the revision stage sometimes does produce that kind of ecstatic rush, and it is definitely dearer to my heart than the thrash-and-flail process of first drafting. Once I know where the story's going (and that there is a story), I can stop worrying about the plot and concentrate on the details of character, dialogue, and the little touches of worldbuilding that will take the book to the next level.
But that will come in a few weeks, once my editor's had the chance to go over the manuscript and write me one of her lovely insightful letters suggesting all the ways in which it can be better. All sorts of things are bound to change in the ensuing revision process, and that'll be a challenge of its own. But for the moment I'm content. Not to mention excited about the potential not only of this particular novel, but of the book(s) to come... and that's a nice place to be.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-07-08 04:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-08 04:54 am (UTC)P.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-08 04:55 am (UTC)P.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-08 01:10 pm (UTC)What an excellent way to put it! Exactly how I feel. Some writers find that blankness exciting and liberating, but I usually just find it nerve-wracking and exhausting.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-08 09:57 pm (UTC)There's a lot of talk too about writers who can't made a decision about what will happen because it closes off possibilities. And I'm over here saying, "Close them off, for goodness' sake, close them off before they eat me."
P.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-08 11:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-08 08:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-08 01:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-08 11:10 am (UTC)I only get that excited-to-edit feeling for the first time I'm looking at it. It starts to wane with every subsequent feeling until I'm sick of looking at it it.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-08 01:16 pm (UTC)--
* "Piskey" is the Cornish variation of "pixie". I prefer the former, as it's more earthy-sounding and less sparkly-cute... not to mention Cornish.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-08 08:50 pm (UTC)What's the difference (if any) between a faery and a piskey?
no subject
Date: 2011-07-08 09:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-08 09:10 pm (UTC);)
no subject
Date: 2011-07-08 11:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-08 05:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-10 01:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-10 12:42 am (UTC)I'm with you on the editing love. I would rather be revising than first-drafting any day of the week.
Sadly, if I don't write a first draft, I'll have nothing TO edit. Sigh...
no subject
Date: 2011-07-10 01:58 am (UTC)And thank you!
no subject
Date: 2011-07-17 03:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-20 03:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-20 12:05 pm (UTC)I went looking for a biography of Tesla the other day in my local library, and what did I find? Twenty books on Edison and four on Marconi in the children's section alone. But not one thing on Tesla, EXCEPT one slim printed copy of the play by the Electric Theatre Company, with J-Yo on the cover. Which was not a bad discovery, as I'd always been curious about it, but still. FAIL, library. FAIL.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-20 04:29 pm (UTC)You can definitely find a lot about him on cracked.com though. Along with Batman, Nikola Tesla seems to be this website's hero and they throw him into articles whenever they have the opportunity xD
no subject
Date: 2011-07-26 03:00 am (UTC)Sad to see that Borders bookstores are closing. My heart breaks. (That being said, only up to 40% off? So stingy, Borders.)