#WritersCoffeeClub 1Sep–What's the most number of revisions you've gone through for a work?
-
#WritersCoffeeClub 1Sep–What's the most number of revisions you've gone through for a work?
I aim to write once then sell. Also, I usually start a day of writing by revising the previous day, so there's no such thing as a first draft. But in extreme cases, a novel gets revised—or re-written—entirely. My current problem child WIP (in abeyance while I write an attack novel) is on its second complete re-write (third draft) over a ten year period. The attack novel is 80% done and should sell as-is.
-
#WritersCoffeeClub 1Sep–What's the most number of revisions you've gone through for a work?
I aim to write once then sell. Also, I usually start a day of writing by revising the previous day, so there's no such thing as a first draft. But in extreme cases, a novel gets revised—or re-written—entirely. My current problem child WIP (in abeyance while I write an attack novel) is on its second complete re-write (third draft) over a ten year period. The attack novel is 80% done and should sell as-is.
#WritersCoffeeClub Footnote to revisions question: I write for a living. I do not view multiple revisions as a badge of honour; they're a sign that I fucked up the previous draft. They represent an opportunity cost—labour that would have better been spent writing another book if I did the job right first time round.
My writing aim is to emit a publication-grade draft with the first attempt. (I sometimes even manage it!)
-
#WritersCoffeeClub Footnote to revisions question: I write for a living. I do not view multiple revisions as a badge of honour; they're a sign that I fucked up the previous draft. They represent an opportunity cost—labour that would have better been spent writing another book if I did the job right first time round.
My writing aim is to emit a publication-grade draft with the first attempt. (I sometimes even manage it!)
Understandable.
In my case, my works are close enough to textbooks and my background is so strongly academic that I am trying something approaching a peer review for my books.
-
#WritersCoffeeClub Footnote to revisions question: I write for a living. I do not view multiple revisions as a badge of honour; they're a sign that I fucked up the previous draft. They represent an opportunity cost—labour that would have better been spent writing another book if I did the job right first time round.
My writing aim is to emit a publication-grade draft with the first attempt. (I sometimes even manage it!)
@cstross that's … very different from what you hear from most pro writers. of course, lots of writers don't talk about their process, but even so. very interesting.
i certainly can't write that way, but then, I haven't been practising every day for 30+ years…
-
@cstross that's … very different from what you hear from most pro writers. of course, lots of writers don't talk about their process, but even so. very interesting.
i certainly can't write that way, but then, I haven't been practising every day for 30+ years…
@fishidwardrobe Oh, the other way of looking at it is that wasted effort doesn't pay the bills, BUT my specific angle (in fiction) is exploring ideas in SF that nobody I'm aware of did before, which in turn means exploration, which sometimes goes into dead ends. Irritating when I can't make it work, though.
Writing to a formula is much easier, if you've worked out how all the bits fit together, but is less rewarding (and challenging).
-
@fishidwardrobe Oh, the other way of looking at it is that wasted effort doesn't pay the bills, BUT my specific angle (in fiction) is exploring ideas in SF that nobody I'm aware of did before, which in turn means exploration, which sometimes goes into dead ends. Irritating when I can't make it work, though.
Writing to a formula is much easier, if you've worked out how all the bits fit together, but is less rewarding (and challenging).
@cstross @fishidwardrobe have you ever had the opportunity to get some of the discarded ideas from a “thrown away” draft (dead end) to build a new work?
-
@cstross @fishidwardrobe have you ever had the opportunity to get some of the discarded ideas from a “thrown away” draft (dead end) to build a new work?
@oblomov @fishidwardrobe Yes. In 2014-ish I got about 30K words into an experimental novel, showed it to my agent, and she said, "this wants to be two different books". She was right, so I abandoned it, but 5-7 years later I dusted off the subplots and they're now part of "Dead Lies Dreaming" and "Quantum of Nightmares".
