{"id":114420,"date":"2016-02-11T10:58:22","date_gmt":"2016-02-11T10:58:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2016\/02\/11\/writing-advice-youre-not-going-to-like\/"},"modified":"2016-02-11T10:58:22","modified_gmt":"2016-02-11T10:58:22","slug":"writing-advice-youre-not-going-to-like","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2016\/02\/11\/writing-advice-youre-not-going-to-like\/","title":{"rendered":"Writing advice you’re not going to like."},"content":{"rendered":"

phantomrose96<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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rosalarian<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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mooncalfe<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

madlori<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

People sometimes send me Asks wanting writing advice. \u00a0I suck at it. \u00a0I don\u2019t really know how I do the writing, or how one should do the writing, or what one should do to get better at the writing. \u00a0All I can ever think to say is \u201cwrite a lot of stuff and you will get better at the writing.\u201d \u00a0Which is true, but hardly a bolt from the sky.<\/p>\n

Well, as it turns out, I do have one piece of Legit Writing Advice, and I am going to share it with you, right now. \u00a0If you were in any of my writing workshop groups at a con, you\u2019ve heard this advice already.<\/p>\n

Warning: you\u2019re going to fucking hate it. \u00a0But if you do it, you will thank me.<\/p>\n

If you have a piece of fiction you\u2019re serious about, something you might want to actually shop around, or just something you really are into and want to make it as good as you can\u2026do NOT edit it.<\/p>\n

Repeat. \u00a0DO NOT EDIT.<\/p>\n

REWRITE.<\/p>\n

As in, print out the whole fucking thing and re-enter it, every word (or use two screens). \u00a0Retype the whole thing. \u00a0Recreate it from the ground up using your first draft as a template. \u00a0Start with a blank page and re-enter every. single. word.<\/p>\n

I hear you screaming. \u00a0OH MY GOD THAT\u2019S INSANE.<\/p>\n

Yes. \u00a0Yes, it is.<\/p>\n

It is also the most powerful thing you will ever do for a piece of fiction that you are serious about.<\/p>\n

Now, let\u2019s get real. \u00a0I don\u2019t do this for most things. \u00a0I don\u2019t do it for my fanfiction. \u00a0But if it\u2019s something original, something I might like to get to a professional level – I do it. \u00a0You absolutely COULD do it for fanfiction. \u00a0It\u2019s just up to you and how much time you want to sink into a piece.<\/p>\n

You can edit, sure. \u00a0But you WILL NOT get down to the level of change that needs to happen in a second draft. \u00a0You will let things slide. \u00a0Your eyes will miss things. \u00a0You will say \u201ceh, good enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first time I did this, on someone else\u2019s advice, I was dubious. \u00a0Within two pages, I was saying WHY HAVE I NOT BEEN DOING THIS ALL THE TIME. \u00a0I was amazed at how much change was happening. \u00a0By the time I got to the end, I had an entirely different novel than the one I\u2019d started with. \u00a0When you\u2019re already re-entering every single word, it\u2019s easy to make deep changes. \u00a0You\u2019ll reformat sentences, you\u2019ll switch phrases around, you\u2019ll massage your word choice. \u00a0You\u2019ll discover whole paragraphs that don\u2019t need to be there at all because they became redundant. \u00a0You\u2019ll find dialogue exchanges that need reimagining. \u00a0Whole plot points will suddenly be different, whole story arcs will reveal their flaws and get re-drawn.<\/p>\n

You cannot get down to the fundamental level of change that\u2019s required just by editing an existing document. \u00a0You have to rebuild it if you really want your story to evolve. \u00a0You will be AMAZED at the difference it will make.<\/p>\n

It will take time. \u00a0It will seem like a huge, Herculean task. \u00a0I\u2019m not saying it\u2019s easy. \u00a0It isn\u2019t. \u00a0But it is absolutely revolutionary.<\/p>\n

Try it. \u00a0I promise, you will see what I mean.<\/p>\n

*PSA: Tipsy!Lori wrote this post. \u00a0In case you couldn\u2019t tell.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

maybe i should try this with my comic scripts.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This advice is real. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I reblogged this earlier on kind of a\u00a0\u201cthat sounds interesting. might work, might not, can\u2019t see it being drastically different but whatever I should try.\u201d kind of note<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve got a short story due today at 5, so I decided to do this and completely rewrite the first draft.<\/p>\n

OH. MY GOD.<\/b><\/p>\n

This is legitimate. It\u2019s let me completely gut scenes I was unhappy with, rewrite them entirely differently and not feel any loyalty to what I used to have.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s taking a long time. It\u2019s a commitment. But heck so is writing.<\/p>\n

This is great. Do this. It\u2019s amazing.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

phantomrose96: rosalarian: mooncalfe: madlori: People sometimes send me Asks wanting writing advice. \u00a0I suck at it. \u00a0I don\u2019t really know how I do the writing, or how one should do the writing, or what one should do to get better at the writing. \u00a0All I can ever think to say is \u201cwrite a lot of … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Writing advice you’re not going to like.”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[4,45],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114420"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114420\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}