(no subject)

[flemmings]

Why I am not a novelist in one word.

Rewrites.

Waddaya mean, rewrite? Rework bits as I go, yes, a hundred times if necessary: an excellent way of getting into the mood to write the next bit. Edit as I go, edit after I've gone, most certainly-- I write to edit as Kurosawa shot to edit. But start from the beginning and do huge chunks all over again, if not actually write the whole thing a second time from scratch? No way, man. What's written is written, and if it doesn't work as written, tough. Maybe the next story will.

Comments

[purpleicicles.livejournal.com]

Heh. I know what you mean, though I'm peculiar in that I will rewrite things entirely, then go back to the original and lift bits out of it to include, and generally mash the two together somehow... argh.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Dunno- maybe I'm just not attached enough to my stories to feel they're worth writing twice. I'm not sure I'd even do it for money. A story that doesn't work for me the first or second time through gives me a distaste for it. I simply don't want to see it again. But I'd certainly rework a fan fic before I'd rework an original. At least there I have some outside guidelines to go by.

[tammylee.livejournal.com]

I have a hard time going back too. I tend to shelf short stories until I can no longer remember much about them THEN go through and edit.

If it were a novel? Oh man, I don't know if I'd have the stamina (or the attention span) to edit an entire novel.

[avalonjones.livejournal.com]

I don't rewrite either. I self-edit enough while I'm writing that what I end up with is usually fairly tight. I'd probably get really pissed off if somebody told me I had to rewrite something beyond a paragraph or two.