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Bruce,
I'm still working on being an author. I've had a brunch of good ideas, and tried to write down the first chapter of them, but they all became longwinded, and not enought diouloge or to much diouloge. Do you have any ideas to help me?
P.S. Its snowing here in AR, is it snowing in NY?
I'm still working on being an author. I've had a brunch of good ideas, and tried to write down the first chapter of them, but they all became longwinded, and not enought diouloge or to much diouloge. Do you have any ideas to help me?
P.S. Its snowing here in AR, is it snowing in NY?
Reply by Bruce Coville
Hey, Duke -
Ah, I understand your problem, and I have the simple answer for it. You are just putting out first drafts. For my last book I did 13 drafts, and believe me, some of the stuff in the early drafts was pretty sucky. Thing is, you've got to write SOMETHING before you can start to do the real work.
When I was young, I thought all the fun was in the writing, and when I heard a published writer say that what she really loved was the RE-writing, I thought she was crazy. But after a while, I understood.
The first draft is just about getting the stuff out of your head and onto paper. You can't start to make it better until it exists to begin with. Long-winded you can fix - just trim it down in the next draft. Too much dialogue? Just cut some out when you rewrite. Too little? Well, let the characters talk more in the next draft.
You don't really have a problem, my friend. Just an opportunity! ;>
Bruce
PS: Not snowing where I am in upstate NY, but New York City got dumped on today.
Ah, I understand your problem, and I have the simple answer for it. You are just putting out first drafts. For my last book I did 13 drafts, and believe me, some of the stuff in the early drafts was pretty sucky. Thing is, you've got to write SOMETHING before you can start to do the real work.
When I was young, I thought all the fun was in the writing, and when I heard a published writer say that what she really loved was the RE-writing, I thought she was crazy. But after a while, I understood.
The first draft is just about getting the stuff out of your head and onto paper. You can't start to make it better until it exists to begin with. Long-winded you can fix - just trim it down in the next draft. Too much dialogue? Just cut some out when you rewrite. Too little? Well, let the characters talk more in the next draft.
You don't really have a problem, my friend. Just an opportunity! ;>
Bruce
PS: Not snowing where I am in upstate NY, but New York City got dumped on today.