Oh, damn

[desperance]

So I spent all weekend working on my new chapter, when I wasn't making chutney; and I wrote half a dozen pages of what was Deep and Grim and Meaningful, Compacted of Pure Thought and Insight.

And this morning it occurred to me that there was a whole nother way to cover the same territory and bring me to the same place, which would be - well, not exactly light and airy, but there would be action! and dialogue! and readers could pick stuff up on the hoof, which is a goodness, rather than having it dumped like a dead slab on their plate! (have I mixed that metaphor, or simply crossed my wires...?)

Whatever. I hate tearing up pages in mid-draft, but, yup. Go back and do it again. Sigh. I'm going for a walk.

Comments

[jeremy-m.livejournal.com]

> I hate tearing up pages in mid-draft

Recycling text is often just a matter of choosing the right level. If, for example, you need some Russian dialogue you can re-use at least the consonants.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

...albeit some of them in unexpected places. Yay.

But really I should be writing my dialogue in Mandarin. This defeats me: no letters in common, and not that many sounds, even...

[footlingagain.livejournal.com]

That's very brave. It's a shame to waste Pure Thought and Insight. But, yes, action and dialogue are goodnesses.

Choices are hard.

[szandara.livejournal.com]

I think you needed to write those six pages as a way of thinking through what you needed to say, before you could figure out how to say it with action and dialogue and other reader-friendly wordage.

Also? mmmm, chutney.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

You could be right. But, damn - imagine if you had to do this all the time, always writing a subtext/internal version before you could write the one for public consumption?

(Now suddenly I'm worrying that this really is what I should be doing... Aaargh!)

[szandara.livejournal.com]

Nah, I think maybe you only need it for the especially tricky bits. Mostly the subtext/internal stuff goes on in your subconscious, but every once it a while it needs to get out on paper.

It's like the gnomes in the back room tapping on their little hammers to make beautiful things--you put them out front, by the glass cases, and the customers get nervous, because they're gnarled and cranky and grimy from bending over thier forges all day long. Every so often the gnomes want to go out and do the selling, but that's not their job. They need to stay in the back room with their hammers and tools and forges and make the pretty so you can display it all on velvet cushions of Action! and Dialogue! and Plot! And then we buy it and everybody's happy and the gnomes can eat chutney and drink wine and sing bawdy gnome songs all night long.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

*g* That's lovely - thank you!