"Details make stories human, and the more human a story can be, the better."
"The first draft of anything is sh*t." Ernest Hemingway
"The first draft of anything is sh*t." Ernest Hemingway
I didn’t die from the red marks and crossed out words in my manuscript when I got it back from my editor. It did hurt a bit, but that was only because I was taking it too personally.
This morning I started working on revision.
This is much harder than one would imagine. Do you know when you live, work or spend a lot of time in a place, it is so familiar to you. Pick a place like that and describe it. Do you ever find that in describing it, you assume that others can see the picture that is in your own head?
I worked in the jail for over 6 years in my career. I can close my eyes and see what the inside of the jail looks like, what the different tanks, dorms and cells look like, what it smells like, what it sounds like. There are now reality shows on television about jail, I think one is called “Lockup”. As I write about events that happened in the jail and I use terms like “I told the inmates to ‘lockdown’”, I for some reason assume that most other people will know what that means. As I describe officers going into a tank to confront a group of inmates I begin to assume that others can picture it in their own head as I can picture it in mine.
I am once again in the process of learning how to “show, not tell”. I am trying to follow the advice of another writer who said to me, “Writing so vividly that the imagination can form the pictures for your reader is an aquired art, practice practice practice”.
Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass. ~Anton Chekhov
Oh yes, the labor of revision! As someone who just finished a novel revision, I feel your pain. And, I promise that you can do it. When all the changes are made, you'll read it back and say, "Wow! That really made it better!"
ReplyDeleteGinger B.
http://coppertopcollins.blogspot.com
www.gingerbcollins.com
Great reminder!
ReplyDeleteI am so proud of you!!! Keep your head up!
ReplyDeleteJulie,
ReplyDeleteGreat post. I recognize what you write about your experience as a law enforcer and how you can't take for granted that your readership knows what is so clear in your head.
As an emigree/expat writer I find I have two distinctly different audiences. What's clear to a Dutch reader about the Netherlands, may not be clear to an American, and visa versa.
Thanks to the wonderful members of the critique group I was part of, I learned to think and write the way you describe in your post.
Dorothy Allison suggests you get a writing buddy who is not your most likely choice, not someone who knows you inside and out, not someone who subscribes to the same ideas et cetera.
I've learned that it's the one who doesn't know where you're coming from who will tell you what you need to hear.
Don't worry, as time goes on it will become easier to disengage from your own point of view and you'll be able to view your writing with the fresh eyes of a reader. That will happen.
ReplyDeleteLove the Hemingway quote! I'm doing a one-woman show here in Las Vegas, and unfortunately, my first drafts are for all the world to see. As writers, at least we have the luxury to keep the suckiness to ourselves!