Posts tagged with “draft” and “writing”
sl---devils-devils-everywhere-narrative1i4.doc
Editing a previous draft. Good to take some time away and get some objectivity. Then you can read it fresh and see what it wants to be (as opposed to what you tried to make it become). Only through the first few pages of the edit. 11:04 PM | 0 Comments | Tags: in-progress, devils, draft, writing, fiction
sl---morris-bobetter-narrativeais.doc
At last, a first cohesive draft. 09:12 PM | 0 Comments | Tags: writing, fiction, swapmeet, bobetter, draft, in-progresssl---morris-bobetter-narrative08u.doc
I haven't read it through yet, but I believe this is an actual semi-readable draft. Or real real close. 04:18 PM | 0 Comments | Tags: fiction, writing, draft, in-progress, swapmeet, bobettersl---morris-bobetter-notes2.doc
This is a compiled set of notes from the first proto-draft which I now use as reference for certain lines and scenes I don't want to forget, but which I don't have a specific place for in the narrative version quite yet. 10:30 PM | 0 Comments | Tags: in-progress, draft, writing, fiction, morris bobetter, swapmeetsl---morris-bobetter-narrativezf6.doc
Rewritten set of notes and scene-seeds, straight from the notebook. This will be the form of the actual story. 10:29 PM | 0 Comments | Tags: in-progress, draft, writing, fiction, swapmeetMolasses - novel excerpt
This edit is now a "novel excerpt" version. Basically the first 18 pages of a potential novel. I'm still going to do the short story version, but this is a tight take that will form the beginning of the long version which it really wants to be. I have included this in some fellowship and MFA applications. 05:04 PM | 0 Comments | Tags: molasses, draft, in-progress, fiction, writing
Molasses - in progress
This is starting to take shape. This "draft" is filled with notes, but the structure and voice is there. It will soon be a presentable draft. 11:38 PM | 0 Comments | Tags: fiction, writing, draft, in-progress, molassessl---molasses-narrative.pdf
This is not yet in a state I would call a first draft. It has contradictions, confusions, mis-orderings, issues of voice, and lotsa fat to trim. But my mom just got to town for a few days and I simply ran out of time before needing to submit to our writing/creativity salon on Friday. C'est la vie. The good thing is that comments from the peanut gallery will help me hone what to highlight and what to kick to the curb. Enjoy. 10:36 PM | 1 Comment | Tags: in-progress, draft, molasses, fiction, writingMorris Bobetter - IP
In true form to my own process which even now I find I am still discovering in the midst of its stages, I had to take a break and look at the 20 pages of words I had written. I went to the notebook to figure out what the hell I was writing, and in plain English wrote the core of the story - the characters and their concerns and histories and the events that unfold - that will form the framework on which to hang all of the good literary stuff I had previously dumped into the manuscript.
This came after a few days of frustratingly rummaging through the twenty pages and writing too many questions and no answers. What is here? Was the real question. The question of specific character actions and illuminating events.
But in retrospect I realized that this happens for every story.
- First get out all the good stuff that will form the meat of the writing and the story.
- Then order and reorder until a flow emerges.
- Then stop and write a very simple one-page synopsis and outline of characters and events in loose chronology.
- Then go back in and start the most fun part - affixing all the good stuff previously written to this outline. Chucking a lot in the garbage because it no longer is necessary for the story, and adding the glue that makes everything click.
- Then and only then can I call it a loose first draft. That’s right, a FIRST draft. But oh man does it save on rewrites later.
I also realized a while ago (and forget every time I start a new story), that my fiancee actually paints and illustrates the exact same way. Dumping all the color and form onto the canvas, and then taking a step back and seeing what’s there, then diving in and teasing everything out. Interesting. No doubt this is by no means the "normal" way (and I doubt there is one since everyone works differently), but it is the way that I naturally work. From concept to formless detail to form to function. And you’re here to see it all as it happens. Don’t that just make you feel all fuzzy inside?
So, I’m now back up to the first few pages and a bunch of swamp below. But now I have my opening lines: "Time was not infinite after all. Since it couldn’t be left to nature anymore, we had to take its portioning into our own hands, and according to a rigorous set of scientific fractions and standards, weights and means, Morris Bobetter ended up with more time than he knew what to do with."
09:52 PM | 0 Comments | Tags: fiction, writing, swapmeet, draft, in-progress, obstruction2, obstructions