Comments on: Writing = hard

By: Peter D. Tillman

Peter D. Tillman — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 17:07:04 +0000

“Writing a balanced, beautiful novel, where plot and character and
setting and pacing and narrative structure and imagery and, above all,
story work in harmony and true proportion, is fucking *hard*.”
–Nicola Griffith,
http://www.strangehorizons.com/2003/20030929/griffith_interview.shtml

Killer writer, nice person. Look her up sometime when you’re in Seattle. You’ll like her, or I’ll eat my socks.

Cheers — Pete Tillman

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 04:07:36 +0000

This might sound weird but the word “of” is one that I most over-use. In fact, if I’m looking to tighten up, that little beast is one my eye falls upon with great suspicion. And then, yes, I think–damn–used it again…It’s a little word that pushes a sentence towards the passive voice. Hey, at least you care. That’s gotta be worth something in the end.

By: Justine

Justine — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 18:38:57 +0000

Mark: There are definitely times when “I could feel” is the way to go. Sadly not the sentence above. I’m not against verbal modality. Is very useful. But too often it creates imprecision and muddiness when that’s not what the writer’s going for.

Laini Taylor: I am on the quadrillionth draft. I wish I was where you are. I am so bored with this novel.

By: Laini Taylor

Laini Taylor — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 17:48:48 +0000

I just wish i was at that stage with my current ms! i’ve never been so desperate to finish anything in my life. just wrote the first draft of the climax in a mad 25-page rush and it’s so bad it makes me want to cry or faint. i don’t know which. i don’t think i can bear to read it, actually. i’ll just take what i may have learned from it and do another hopefully less hideous draft.

as for editors, i love what susan cooper said — “we couldn’t live without editors. Copy editors, i’m not so sure.”

ha ha

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 17:02:27 +0000

I have such difficulty with things like this, “I could feel” and “I felt” give me two different vibes. I suppose they are interchangeable sometimes but to me “I felt” feels like the PC guy is writing it – sterile description of a tactile sensation, whereas “I could feel” feels like the Mac guy is writing it and it will be followed by flowery words describing the emotional response.

By: sherry

sherry — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 15:36:13 +0000

Editing and writing are very different skills and you aren’t allowed to feel bad about changes that your editor makes. Every editing client I’ve ever had makes those kinds of errors, which I catch. And when I write, I make the same errors myself–and i often need another editor to catch them. So no, your editor isn’t necessarily a better writer–she/he’s an editor. that’s why they get paid the big bucks (ha)! tis much easier to see problems in other people’s work now isn’t it?

I’m sure your new book is awesome. Can’t wait to read it.

By: Robert Legault

Robert Legault — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 04:47:08 +0000

It’s often not any easier for us editing to catch some of this stuff. it requires concertration not to get caught up in the story and concentrate on these little niceties of language. The second sentence, in particular, could easily roll right by me if I happened to be zoning out a bit. And if you edit all day long, zoning out some is inevitable.

And I will second the comment above: I find many of these faults in my own first-draft writing when I read it over later. The act of spewing out what you’re trying to say comes for a whole different headspace than editing.

By: Kadie-Wa

Kadie-Wa — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 04:41:06 +0000

Nothing can beat being a good old rabit farmer.

By: sylvia_rachel

sylvia_rachel — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 03:07:28 +0000

i’m a professional editor as well as an aspiring writer, so i know very well how stupid extremely bright and capable people can sound when their brains go just that little bit faster than their fingers. and picking the nits is always much easier in someone else’s work. it’s not you. it’s the nature of writing and editing (and to prove it, i will reveal that i have found some of the exact same boneheaded errors in my own work that i routinely grouse about in other people’s).

By: kim

kim — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 02:47:06 +0000

how did you get it then hillary! ?

By: hillary!

hillary! — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 02:26:36 +0000

I once got a paper cut on my tongue. The sad thing is that it wasn’t even from an envelope.

By: Justine

Justine — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 01:21:40 +0000

Lisa: Ow! Your mockage is almost as painful as the paper cuts. I’m going to quit writing and become a rabbit farmer. Clearly, it’s the only way . . .

By: Lisa Yee

Lisa Yee — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 01:18:07 +0000

Could you still feel the pain of where the paper cut had been?

By: ebear

ebear — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 00:58:32 +0000

I still felt warmth where his thumb had touched.

Can I have your editor?

By: Patrick, The Space Lord

Patrick, The Space Lord — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 00:36:48 +0000

she was looking to see if the words jumped off the page… It was an honest mistake…

By: Lydia

Lydia — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 00:35:51 +0000

“My fairy book is very chaste.”

for some reason, that made me giggle.

you are a brilliant author, sometimes however you get so wraped up in a story, you miss some of the minor writing details…

And across the nose? What were you doing with it?

By: Patrick, The Space Lord

Patrick, The Space Lord — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 00:12:27 +0000

what? nose? no no no. Then he would be doing it wrong. index fingers are for noses.

By: Kadie-Wa

Kadie-Wa — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 00:07:25 +0000

Across…your…nose? Well I guess it can happen.

I do mistakes all the time. is that why there are so many green squiggles under random sentances? huh. I never knew that.

By: Danica

Danica — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 23:55:56 +0000

My friend got a papercut on her eyelid the other day. If that’s not an example of the nefarious ways of paper I don’t know what is.

By: Mary Elizabeth S.

Mary Elizabeth S. — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 23:36:15 +0000

I’ve had that happen. the worst is when you sit there for hours and hours trying to find and fix such mistakes yourself, then show it to a friend who, in about ten seconds, finds hundreds that you missed. then I think, “why did I even look? I’m obviously blind, and shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near a story!”

luckily, i’m working on a first draft right now, so that’s much easier…*sarcasm*

~mary

By: cherie priest

cherie priest — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 23:29:26 +0000

Me too — plus I have trouble with unnecessary past progressive tenses. “She was running across the grass …” instead of “She ran across the grass,” etcetera.

By: Leisa

Leisa — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 23:17:27 +0000

I just got my Thesis draft back from my Advisor and it looks just like that. It left me staring at the notes thinking, “did I *really* type that?” *Face-Palm* I guess that’s why Editors and Thesis Advisors get the big bucks!

By: Justine

Justine — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 23:03:45 +0000

Perhaps on her nose staunching the blood from a paper cut.

By: Patrick, The Space Lord

Patrick, The Space Lord — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 23:01:06 +0000

I figure you are just padding your word count. Nothing wrong with that.

Where else could his thumb have been? I only put thumbs on foreheads…

By: kim

kim — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 22:57:43 +0000

what are you going to do to the paper?