This week I had galleys to read. For a novella called, “Bond of Silver,” in a December Berkley anthology called UNLEASHED.
As I was working, I realized that the least favorite parts of writing for me are the first draft and the galleys. I hate facing a blank page. So I write my first draft as fast as I can. Once I get that draft, I can edit it within an inch of its life. Every book I write goes through four or five edits. One on the screen and then three or four on paper. That’s just the way I work. I can’t get the story and the characters all at once. I have to layer my way into a good story. And doing those layers is incredibly satisfying to me.
Then–months later–I get the galleys, and I see lots of places where I have word repetitions or sentences that seem awkward. And I feel like-–at the galley stage–I shouldn’t be finding so many things that make me cringe.
Sigh. Maybe I’m too much of a perfectionist. I tend to focus on what’s wrong rather than what’s right.
If you’re a writer, what do you like best about the process? And what do you like least?
To be brutally honest, the best part for me is when I’ve sold a book–and I don’t have to start writing it yet! <g>
The good news is that I enjoyed reading “Bond of Silver.” It’s been a long time since I’ve seen it, and I had that usual experience with galleys: "I wrote that?”
The story is about a man from New Atlantis, which is in the Caribbean. The inhabitants left the Greek mainland eons ago because they were persecuted for their psychic powers. They now hide their island with a force field. But they need more psychics to help them maintain the field. So they send their young men and women out into the world in dreams–to hook up with a partner who also has psychic powers. If the meeting is successful, they go out to bring the person back.
Naturally, the couple I’m writing about have terrible problems working out their relationship. It’s complicated. Her mother bonded with his adoptive father. But she was afraid to go back to New Atlantis with him. She had her daughter alone and has guarded her jealously ever since. And she almost kills the young lovers as she tries to stop her daughter from leaving.
It’s a very emotional story, with what I hope is a big surprise at the end.
And I had a good time with the psychic element. My hero is telekinetic. So he can start kissing and touching the heroine when he’s still standing on the other side of the room. And when they are in bed together, he can touch her intimately in more than two places at once. Very convenient for him!
And fun for me.
I’m sure I’m in the minority, but my favorite part of the process IS the new writing. Seeing what’s going to come out of me each time.
I like edits/revision, too, but can’t stand rewrites. I tend to get carried away and have to pull back so I’m not writing a completely new book (the process I’m in at this very moment).
Comment by Heather — August 29, 2006 @ 10:07 am
Heather, if you like virgin writing, I envy you. I really do hate that blank page.
Rebecca
Comment by Rebecca York — August 29, 2006 @ 10:18 am
My favourite part is when a story idea drops into my head completely unexpectedly, when I’m not even thinking about writing. I have to rush off and write it down. I’ve had a couple of times when a whole novel or novella has formed this way, and I’ve gone straight to my PC and typed out the whole syn/road map. Now, if only it was always like that
The part I like least… the blank page when it’s not coming easy, usually in the early stages of getting into a story, learning the characters and so on. Once I’m past that and rolling it’s great, but it can be really slow at first. I have to push past the initial resistance until I’m inside the characters enough to more easily decide how they react. I layer, like you do, Rebecca, but sometimes I can get around it by jumping ahead to conflict scenes. If I know how they will react then, it helps me with the simpler stuff. Mad, I know, but it works for me. 
Comment by Saskia Walker — August 30, 2006 @ 6:21 am
Well, of course, I love it when a story idea drops into my head. And that does happen sometimes.
One thing I can’t do is write scenes out of order. There are always some scenes I want to write more than others. If I skip around, I’ll be left with the stuff that’s no fun. (The worst part for me is transition scenes. Yuck.)
Rebecca
Comment by Rebecca York — August 30, 2006 @ 10:56 am
Wow, Rebecca, you have a fantastic imagination (which, of course, your many fans already know!). Your latest sounds amazing. I so admire your career. I think it’s a very good thing to write the way you describe…to get your story and characters on the paper fast…to kill the critical editor for a while so your creativity can really flow. I’m still struggling with getting into the zone consistently…advice is welcome!
Luv,
Cleo
Comment by Cleo — August 31, 2006 @ 7:13 pm
Thanks, Cleo.
I used to spend six months writing an Intrigue. Then I’d spend a month or six weeks editing. I figured out that I could write faster, but I’ve not been able to shorten the editing process.
I start each day by editing what I wrote the day before. That’s how I get into what I’m working on. When I read the previous day’s work, I always find parts missing. Either I don’t have enough of the characters’ emotions. Or I don’t have the action quite right. Or the dialogue needs work. As I said in another post, I have to layer it in to get it right.
How do I get my draft done?
I basically set myself the task of writing ten pages a day. I might stop and read e-mail or talk on the phone. But I go back to the story and stay with the day’s work until I get those ten pages. I might get that done by early afternoon. Or I might still be working at ten at night.
I’ve also said before that writing gets easier the more you do it. If you write consistently, you will be able to increase your output.
A friend said to me recently–”Ruth, your experience is different from most writers because you’ve written so many books.” That’s also right. I do have a lot of experience, and that makes it easier for me to know if something is working. I can tell pretty quickly if a scene is off. If it is, I stop and try to figure out what’s wrong. Another alternative is to discuss it with one of my writing buddies.
Sometimes I write a scene that I know isn’t quite right–and leave it in the ms. I think of it as holding the place for the scene that will be right–when I figure it out. Those “wrong” scenes usually don’t have the character motivation quite right. But I put them in anyway to hold the place for the correct one, when I figure out what the character would really be thinking.
I know there are some people who can’t go ahead until they have each scene right. Being able to give myself permission to have it slightly wrong is one way I forge ahead.
Of course, if it’s TOO screwed up, then it will throw the rest of the book off. So I have to be able to recognize that, too.
Oh–something else. I usually have more than one book going at once. I mean, I might be writing one book, but I have another proposal sitting there, ready to go. Or I have to deliver an Intrigue one month and a Berkley the next month. If I’m having trouble with one book, I’ll put it down and work on the other one–until I figure out the basic problem with the book that was giving me fits.
I just wrote 100 pages of a Berkley. But I think it’s going to turn into 90 pages because the beginning is too slow.
I had to put it down because I’d planned a research trip to Boston, for the Intrigue that’s due in a couple of months. I’d written the whole draft of that ms. I’ve put in the material I got from my research–changing scenes that I’d guessed at before going to Boston. Now I’m editing the book once on the screen. When I finish that, I’ll do a paper edit or two of that book–and hope it will be done. Then I’ll go back to the Berkley.
One reason I try to write fast is so that I have time to put the book away for a while. When I pick it up after a few weeks of working on something else, it’s easy to see any problems with the ms, because it’s like someone else wrote it.
Does any of that help?
Rebecca
Comment by Rebecca York — August 31, 2006 @ 11:30 pm
OMIGAWD that is SO helfpul. Thank you for taking so much time to give me some feedback. I am really happy that you’re a part of this Blog group. Anytime you want to blog about your writing process, I know we’ll all benefit! It’s really a struggle to figure out how to make it all work. Sure there are “writing” books out there, but there’s nothing like an author with your experience to shed light on the bumps, twists, screw ups
, and dark turns of this very lonesome process!
Luv,
Cleo
Comment by Cleo — September 1, 2006 @ 12:32 pm
Well, after I wrote it, I thought–I can say something about this on my other blog, too. So I expanded it at
http://www.rebeccayork.blogspot.com/
I love talking about writing method. That’s one of the joys of my critique group. One of our members is writing a mystery. She doesn’t feel close enough to the main character, so she’s putting the heroine’s pov scenes in first person–and leaving the rest in third person. We’re waiting to see how well it works.
Comment by Rebecca York — September 1, 2006 @ 1:25 pm