Enough break time.
June 17th 2007 21:23
So, today I have to finish this stupid 17-chapter autobiography for the Smith (by the way, I've counted and 13 best friends have come and gone... plus I have another 2...), and do my geography, and write an essay. Maybe start my screenplay, since I have an idea (and thirteen days), but there is something much, much more important to be done as well. That will provide many sleepless nights.
Today, I will print a very. very. very. long story. AKA, it's time to print my novel out, and butcher it with red pen. Over one hundred pages in 10pt. font and I'm not sure if I'm looking forward to it or not. Edits have always been painful for me, although I do them regularly and rigorously, with a tendency towards the cruel.
Well, that's a lie. In fact, while I adore the writing, I love editing, too. I love seeing my work flourish and become something great; I love the sense of magnificence, of beauty, I am left with after numerous painful edits. Of course, it doesn't hurt that my first drafts tend to be unusually well-written because...
Let me put it this way: the Smith said on my report card that I was good at 'revising, drafting, and editing'. Well, hah to him because I do everything at the last possible minute. And this 10 page (10 pt font, again) thing I wrote for him in an hour? One grammar correction.
I think it's the English professor and major blood running in my veins here. It's the motivation I can never work up; isn't it just so much more fun to surf the net? (Duh) But now I'm determined to sit down, look directly at this piece of crap, and say 'what can I do to improve you?'
Here's what's already on my to-do list:
-Expand on the ending
-Add in a Telar rebellion
-Make the underlying theme more evident in the beginning
-Bring in Eternia sooner, not much, but sooner
-Expand on that damn war
All of which is pretty big. With another story, I revised the first three chapters six times before submitting them to a competition solely for advice from an agent. I lost horrendously; because it was a story with others before it that I tried to make standalone and could not.
I must admit, it's been days since I wrote anything useful. So now I'm going to shut up about getting to work and damn well do it.
~Dianna
Today, I will print a very. very. very. long story. AKA, it's time to print my novel out, and butcher it with red pen. Over one hundred pages in 10pt. font and I'm not sure if I'm looking forward to it or not. Edits have always been painful for me, although I do them regularly and rigorously, with a tendency towards the cruel.
Well, that's a lie. In fact, while I adore the writing, I love editing, too. I love seeing my work flourish and become something great; I love the sense of magnificence, of beauty, I am left with after numerous painful edits. Of course, it doesn't hurt that my first drafts tend to be unusually well-written because...
Let me put it this way: the Smith said on my report card that I was good at 'revising, drafting, and editing'. Well, hah to him because I do everything at the last possible minute. And this 10 page (10 pt font, again) thing I wrote for him in an hour? One grammar correction.
I think it's the English professor and major blood running in my veins here. It's the motivation I can never work up; isn't it just so much more fun to surf the net? (Duh) But now I'm determined to sit down, look directly at this piece of crap, and say 'what can I do to improve you?'
Here's what's already on my to-do list:
-Expand on the ending
-Add in a Telar rebellion
-Make the underlying theme more evident in the beginning
-Expand on that damn war
All of which is pretty big. With another story, I revised the first three chapters six times before submitting them to a competition solely for advice from an agent. I lost horrendously; because it was a story with others before it that I tried to make standalone and could not.
I must admit, it's been days since I wrote anything useful. So now I'm going to shut up about getting to work and damn well do it.
~Dianna
| 31 |
| Vote |
