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.
0 Comments / Tags: molasses, draft, in-progress, fiction, writing
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.
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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.
1 Comment / Tags: writing, fiction, molasses, draft, in-progress
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."
0 Comments / Tags: fiction, writing, swapmeet, draft, in-progress, obstruction2, obstructions
Many questions, many questions. This feels like it may stretch into a longer story. Maybe. It could.
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I’ve restarted this story to be in line with our second obstruction, also which I give as a challenge to you readers.
Obstruction #2: unedited
This was inspired by an interview with Tom Robbins detailing his writing process. Write your first sentence, making sure it is perfect before you place that period down. Once the period is placed, the line is done. Move on to the second line. No edits after you’ve gone on to the next sentence. This is basically the opposite of what they teach you as a best practice in school.
As before, post yours as a comment or email me and I’ll post it here.
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After watching The Five Obstructions, Marisa and I decided to give ourselves some weekly homework in the form of creative constraints. Here’s my draft of the first.
I bring this challenge to you readers as well.
Obstruction #1: backwards
Start writing from the very last sentence. When you’re done with that sentence, write the one before it. And so on until you decide it’s complete. Our minimum was one full double-spaced page.
Post yours as a comment or email me and I’ll post it here.
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Pre-first draft still, but it’s well in the works.
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Edits from Marisa Egerstrom.
Also, here’s what I just sent to her after reading through the edits:
0 Comments / Tags: fiction, writing, edits, washerwoman, draft, in-progressi just glanced through your notes and realized what a service you have done me. seriously…listen…what dawned on me is what magic and misdirection is. when you want someone to look at your left hand…you look at your left hand…and they never see the right.
just like with writing. if you want someone to not think about where they are, you don’t offer them generic glances like nothing’s wrong…you simply look at something else instead.
in other words…i was keeping my outdoors descriptions fairly vague…but what you said makes even more sense. keep my description to inside the bunker and don’t have the characters pay any attention to details outside…then the reader won’t either.
simple misdirection. magic. its not that they won’t know where they are…they just won’t care until the story’s over and they’re like “wait…where was that?” awesome. you rule.
Coming along. There’s interesting characters in there, a general chronology, a beginning and an end. The middle is mushy and schizophrenic by virtue of lines as placeholders, but it’s fleshing itself out. Now I just comb through from start to finish and press it out. The trick will by what motivational conflict to attribute to the narrator vs. the other characters, and how much to actually put in there. Still don’t know what I want the title to be either.
0 Comments / Tags: fiction, writing, molasses, draft, in-progress
Very, very early stages of this little ditty about a swap meet and time having been found to be finite. Title as yet unfinalized, so I’m going to continue to refer to it as swapmeet. Oh, I’m trying to use Vonnegut’s Harrison Bergeron as a model. Standing on the shoulders of giants, ya know.
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With notated critique/edits that I walked through with Eric Myers.
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Marisa Egerstrom’s edits and comments.
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Downloaded, edited, and re-uploaded using the OLPC little green laptop! An experiment that was marginally successful. The keys are just too damn small. But it works. I could potentially do this on the beach.
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Edits by Kevin Lottes.
1 Comment / Tags: fiction, writing, draft, washerwoman, in-progress, edits
Edits from Kevin Lottes.
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It’s been a bit since I started trying to create an actual cohesive draft of this story. But now it begins. Its starting to form structure and voice and chronology. Since I really don’t know where I’m going with this, I imagine it’ll take a few weeks before it’s in a real first draft form, but I’m excited about it.
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Almost done. Just a few spots in bold that I’m wondering about in terms of necessity and/or punch in delivering what needs to be delivered. I’m going to send this to Zoetrope when it’s ready. Coppola likes war stories, right?
0 Comments / Tags: fiction, writing, washerwoman, draft, in-progress
I am officially sick and tired of editing this fucking story. See what happens when you get ambitious before you learn some skills?
As I lumbered to the BART station this morning, annoyed by the order of sentences is this rearranged and rearranged piece, I decided that it just needs severe bloodletting. The plan is to start reading it from the beginning, and every time a sentence gets in the way, excise it and put it in a Notes document. Then, if I hit a spot that needs something, I should be able to find it there, but more than likely I will be left with a cohesive story and a bunch of unnecessary lines in a document that I can purge.
That’s the plan. I’ve finished 5 other stories by the time it took me to get this far with this one.
0 Comments / Tags: fiction, writing, gallows, draft, in-progress
About halfway through yet another damn draft! The story that is never finished.
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Almost a second draft…just a few bold unresolved issues.
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On page 8 in the editing.
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Very very early beginnings of a tale dealing with time, music, and swap meets.
0 Comments / Tags: fiction, writing, morris, draft, in-progress
I am a creative professional who works within a diverse set of media. This archive of my creative process contains ideas and examples of all things creative, and is intended to demystify the process for others to use.
ยป Scott Lambridis