Steve wrote: 
lol

Repeat. 

 Alexandra wrote: 
Well done.  I considered doing that but didn't think I could take the pressure! 

"Asking a writer what he thinks about criticism is like asking a
lamppost what it feels about dogs." — John Osborne
 
 
 

Writers and their kittens

a pictorial.



Ernest Hemingway

 winter wrote: 
  
 
 
 

 
Well...I can at least report that I've gotten back to work on my novel-in-progress and am in the "zone" again.

 arighter2 wrote: 



Thanks!

 winter wrote:  *high five*

So excited. Just crossed the 40K mark for my NaNoWriMo 2011 novel - the finish line is in sight. Draft 1 is almost done, and once I can retrieve the first half from my currently disabled laptop I can polish it up nice and pretty.

I'm going through/organizing my piles of writing material from the last decade.....and came across the original folder/inspirations for my novel-in-progress right now. Wow. Stuff's in there I'd forgotten about.

And then there are the older works I still have NOT given up on.....it just wasn't their time before.
  

So much promise in these boxes. So much promise. I'm very excited for my future. 

 winter wrote:
It does. And these modifications and changes WERE inspired by my Muse, you see. The story keeps evolving until it's exactly the way it's supposed to be. It writes itself. Half the time I don't feel like I'm in control at all...it's like it's channeling through.

 Alexandra wrote: 
Sorry.

I think you and I have very different writing processes. For example, I do my best work in solitude - hell, half the time I shut the cats out of the room - and you get inspiration from writing around other people, like in a coffee shop. Both great approaches, to each her own, right?

It wouldn't occur to me to add stuff that I know to make it more resonant to my readers - I write what I write, and I write it as well as I can, but unless it's for a specific commission I don't think much about whether it will find an audience. There's not a single thing wrong with making it more appealing or resonant or what have you. It's not my approach to my writing, but it's just as good an approach as mine. It's just not what I do, and given my process it would throw what I was doing out of whack.

I start with an idea, usually a phrase or an image or a question. And I just kind of run with it - I let my Muse take it where she wants it to go, and all I do is try to make that work using what I know of language. If I went back and added something later that wasn't in there before, it would feel out-of-place to me - it would feel tacked-on and inorganic. And I'm not sure I could make it work with what was already there. Obviously my work doesn't just spring like fully-armored Athena from my sweaty brow. I have to work at it, too. But If Athena comes out in sk8r grl gear and I try to put her in a hoop skirt and whalebone corset, she's going to kill me dead. I might get to know her better as I'm writing the story and find that maybe she's into whalebone corsets - stories evolve like all living things - but if it wasn't coming from her it would just feel too forced for me.

Does that make sense?

 

 winter wrote: 

Yes! So now I'm curious as to why you're having these reservations. I wrote that in January....there have been a lot MORE ideas/modifications even. The dementia thing will actually very much add to one of the main characters....the MSA person will be a side character—-or else he will maybe be in the next book. This novel has a lot of darkness in it (for a change).

 Alexandra wrote: 
I get that. I'm just not sure how it organically ties into what you've already written. But I haven't seen that, so I could well be many, many miles off.

 oldslabsides wrote: 

Those are the Muses knocking at your door. They won't quit until you get it on paper/laptop.

 Alexandra wrote: 
This is something that I keep coming back to - for a couple of years now.  It's stayed pretty consistent, so maybe there's something to it.

 winter wrote: 

When you write about what you know and what you've lived.....it's more compelling, more believable. I feel a lot more ideas brewing with those changes. We'll see....

 winter wrote: 

I second that emotion.



Except I'm not one to talk. I'm in total block right now....but it won't last forever.

 Alexandra wrote: 
Okay, knowing very little of your novel-in-progress, I have to ask: why do you have to add these things?