Congratulations on all NaNoWriMo achievements!
I suddenly had a revision breakthrough this week while reading "Outgoing" by Alex Wilson in February Asimov's. An incredible story, I see award nominations in its future. The blurb says it's his first professional fiction sale.
I realized that the way the story unfolds as you're composing it may not be the same as how you want it to unfold for the reader. When I was writing "A Singular Being" a lot of free association went on as the story emerged. I see now that not every step along the way needs to be included in the final story. Putting this insight together with the many excellent critiques I received from Critters, I began revising. It's a start. I now have a manuscript I can take to lunch with me at the deli with the wonderful library tables. I've missed doing that since "The Daily Grind" bogged down.
I guess my insight is about process vs. product. I hope I can apply it to "Grind". I got an image of being violently flung around by big machines and having no control, & started writing. For some reason the descriptions were sounds rather than sights. The story as it stands emerged from there. So far I've been trying to rethink the machines & kitchen equipment so I can describe them more visually & I'm not sure how well it's going.
Do you have any thoughts on process vs. product? How does your process of creating a story work?
Jingle, jingle to all!
2 comments:
It's a challenge for me because most of what I work on comes from a consistent universe of characters and I know way too much detail about these people. I frequently find myself pulling back information as to have something to save for later. Revising is painful. I have to do it everyday at work with my promotional copy, but that's not quite so painful as my fiction. On a side note, we just had our best ratings book in six years and our best news ratings EVER! And I was employee of the month because of all the extra work I had to do in November (and they didn't even know about the novel!) So I'm feeling Holly Jolly! Congrats on your mini-breakthrough Linda, it's the best feeling in the world (or close to it) when you can make it all gel.
Thanks!
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