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Post by Octagon on Nov 15, 2022 1:47:23 GMT -6
Some have told me that writing should be easy; others have told me that, to write a good work, one must do numerous edits. In speaking especially of lyrical prose, do you hold this to be true? For me, (not that my writing is good), the number of necessary edits vary through time. But I find that, nonetheless, I must do a number of edits, in writing any prose of lyrical quality, though the things that I write are usually short of good.
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Post by RAVENEYE on Nov 17, 2022 10:59:21 GMT -6
Um, yes, putting words together is easy. Toddlers do this. Writing WELL (unless one is a prodigy) is difficult. Writing WELL takes time and practice and learning by trial and error, feedback and revisions. Doing the work. We wouldn't need feedback partners if it was "easy." If it was "easy" everyone would succeed at it.
I have very strong feelings about this topic, so I won't even get started on a rant about it. Suffice to say, you're on the right track if you're open to revising, receiving feedback, and revising again.
"The first draft of anything is shit." ~Ernest Hemingway
As long as a writer gets to a place where they can own this, let this be okay (better than okay, a mercy), and get on with the next shitty paragraph, understanding they have the biggest part of the work still to come (revisions), then they have a decent idea what storytelling is about. Assuming the same goes for poetry too.
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Post by Alatariel on Nov 17, 2022 15:05:34 GMT -6
What Raveneye said. Stringing words together...anyone can do that (supposedly) but to create a story with depth and honesty and beauty takes A LOT of time, effort, mistakes, and revisions.
The first draft will not be perfect. It'll be the bones of a great structure, but not fully designed yet. But one must get words out before they can be edited and polished. Like all art, we must be okay with being mediocre for a long time (and being told how to improve) before we are good at something. We must fail numerous times in order to learn what we did wrong and writing is no different. It's an art form, one that requires a lot of hard work and study.
If we think everything we write will be gold the second it hits paper (or computer screen), then we would never have the books we do today. I don't know any author that doesn't do extensive edits to their manuscripts. Maybe some seasoned writers like Brandon Sanderson can survive doing minor edits but he's written dozens of books and dozens more that have never seen the light of day.
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Post by Octagon on Nov 18, 2022 17:17:31 GMT -6
I agree.
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You add them to your profile as you do them around the forum.
