Saturday, February 19, 2011

Oh Writing, How I loathe love Thee!

Due to many, various digital (and paper) stimuli, I had a revelation this week.

I have learned to write backwards.

"Are you suddenly dyslexic?" You may ask. Aside of the fact that that's impossible to attain as an adult, no. I've simply discovered that my path to learning how to write a novel is completely retrograde.

I've summarized it into what I'm going to call my 7 steps of grief writing.

1. Write a novel.
2. Time to figure out the plot.
3. Re-write novel.
4. Read a book about plot, Anatomy of Story by John Truby. A. Maze. Ing.
5. Re-write novel.
6. Plot solid; time to figure out "voice".
7. Re-write novel.

So there you have it. Completely backwards. Don't worry, my story doesn't read that way ;)

If any of you would like to share your journey, I'd love to hear it!

4 comments:

  1. Love it! And maybe I should read Anatomy of Story myself. I don't have one method, as I've written books with and without outlines.

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  2. Thanks Beth! Yes, it was a fabulous book. Totally changed my perspective on stories and it delved into many ideas I wouldn't have thought of on my own. It's excellent using as a guide to outlining your story, at least it was for me. What kinds of books do you like to write?

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  3. It always amazes me how many different ways there are to write a book - and even the same person has a different path each time. Good luck with it!

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  4. Thanks Caryn! There are a million and one ways, aren't there? And I'm sure the more we do it, the more ways we'll discover. Isn't it wonderful? ;D

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