Cutting the C###

I am studying more slowly than planned but so far it’s been a worthwhile exercise to get back to thinking more analytically about writing.

The biggest benefit, however, comes when I get back to putting a story on paper.  Specifically, how less really is more!

I have some great tips and techniques for revising my work, from thinking through each scene to see if it does what it should – and includes the elements that give it purpose – to identifying how to tighten up the language and what type of words to consider cutting first.

All I need now is to take my ideas book, and see what ideas I want to pursue, if any!

One thing I will try in my next writing outing is revising as I go, a technique that works for many people but has never really appealed to me.  However it seems sensible to try it and see if it helps because my whole ethos on the next story is about planning, organising and controlling – I don’t want to write another 50k words before I realise my story is fundamentally flawed!

Now I have a better, more practical understanding of the revision process, I need to make it part of my writing practice.  That will take some time but we all know writing is at least partially habit so I don’t see why editing should be any different!

Until next time – happy writing,

EJ

🙂

 

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Looking for Perfection

I have found my writing mind wandering rather a lot over the last few days, seeking out the perfect words to start a story.

It comes, of course, from studying the importance of language and the need to find the right word.

I don’t have a story, as such: what I want is an opening line.  A selection of sounds that creates a rhythm, a selection of ideas which form a substance.  A selection that say exactly what I want them to say.

But I am torn, because I know this urge to just write has to be contained in some way: I jump into writing with no plan too often and struggle to build a back story to support my beginning.

So I am going to try a new writing exercise, an experiment in control.  I am going to work at writing a great sentence, honing it and moulding it until it is exactly what I want – and then I will put it aside and start on another one.  And then another, and another and so on. But I will not use them; instead they will sit, ready and waiting, for my planning and shaping to be done.

It feels odd and slightly ridiculous to want to find a perfect sentence and risk never using it, but that isn’t the point of the exercise.

No, the point is that all sentences deserve that level of attention – and still they might never make it into a story.  Meanwhile I will get into the habit of working harder at seeking out the exact word I need, and checking for the sound of my work, in all aspects of my writing.

I am really excited to see what I can produce!

Happy writing,

EJ

🙂

 

 

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Week 148 – Must Do Better!

This is going to be a short post as I have a horrible headache and am feeling a little sorry for myself…

I met my target of finishing section one this week, which was a good feeling, but it did prove how much further ahead I could be if I just plugged away when I got the time.

I must do better – at organising my time, at planning my various activities, at prioritising, and at just sitting down and getting the words out even if they’re not exactly what I want them to be.

I have so many things calling on me at the moment that I have to let some things go – I’ve already stopped doing the courses I’d planned to do over the last few months, but I’m also rearranging some of the other things I take on to balance my time a little more.

I am not indispensable with regard to my various committees and groups and if I have to step back so be it.   It’s important for me to give my new job proper attention and to get to grips with writing again – and there are certain things in my life that I have to focus on now.

All in all, I have to do better about saying no when it needs to be said!

In other news – Book 38 of the list is The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame.  I have read this one, as an adult actually; in fact it’s on the bookcase next to me as I type.  I used to watch the TV show when I was little – voiced by Peter Sallis (Wallace from the  Wallace and Gromit films) and David Jason (Delboy Trotter from Only Fools and Horses, amongst other things); those voices are rather evocative.

That’s all for this week, I’m off to lie down in a darkened room…

Happy writing,

EJ

🙂

 

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