My fiction process mutates but it's pretty much applied chaos. I write on napkins, I type atrange rants that have nothing to do with the matter at hand, I find things on the floor or under the seat of the car, and I somehow keep track of it all. Then I hone obsessively until I can spend hours without doing much more than adjusting commas. Which is all rather silly because it makes me very slow.
Which is all rather silly because it makes me very slow.
Writing isn't always about speed, though. I used to be a lot more chaotic of a writer, but I've lost my ability to keep up with things as I get older. Plus, now that I'm getting more serious about editing I need my notes and things (I write on napkins, Post It's, envelopes) need to be more consolidated.
But that's because I'm sort of getting MORE and MORE scatterbrained as time wears on.
And sometimes taking the time to go slow and hone can pay off, especially in the quality of writing.
I really wish that there wasn't this myth that the length of time it takes to write something is important to it's quality. Sometimes things written fast are great, sometimes crap. Same with things written slow. It's not like if you take four years to write something that it's automatically better than someone who finished their work up in a matter of months. But the reverse is true. Writing something fast isn't necessarily better, either.
True on all counts. Though it, of course, would be very awkward to get invited into a themed anthology and have to admit to the editor that the book will be published before you finish your story.
Though it, of course, would be very awkward to get invited into a themed anthology and have to admit to the editor that the book will be published before you finish your story.
I'll bet it is! :)
It makes me think of that quote about deadlines making a wooshing sound as they pass by.
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no subject
Date: 2008-04-21 04:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-21 04:52 pm (UTC)Writing isn't always about speed, though. I used to be a lot more chaotic of a writer, but I've lost my ability to keep up with things as I get older. Plus, now that I'm getting more serious about editing I need my notes and things (I write on napkins, Post It's, envelopes) need to be more consolidated.
But that's because I'm sort of getting MORE and MORE scatterbrained as time wears on.
And sometimes taking the time to go slow and hone can pay off, especially in the quality of writing.
I really wish that there wasn't this myth that the length of time it takes to write something is important to it's quality. Sometimes things written fast are great, sometimes crap. Same with things written slow. It's not like if you take four years to write something that it's automatically better than someone who finished their work up in a matter of months. But the reverse is true. Writing something fast isn't necessarily better, either.
Or: it takes however long it takes.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-21 05:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-21 08:56 pm (UTC)I'll bet it is! :)
It makes me think of that quote about deadlines making a wooshing sound as they pass by.