3113
Hello Summer!
- Joined
- Nov 1, 2005
- Posts
- 13,823
....better than you do!
Talking about the writing process here: Curious thing happened with my lastest story--or maybe not so curious, as I'm sure this has happened to others.
You know how common it is, I'm sure, to write up a story, have a part in it that you love, the best thing you've ever written...and yet, as you start to edit, you know that this beautiful, lovely part has to go. Maybe it's description or dialogue or a scene, and it's great...but every time you read it, you're forced to admit: it slows the action, does nothing for the story, is self-indulgent...etc.
It has to go. You hate to do it, you try to think up every excuse t keep it. You hold on till the last minute, but, finally and with deep regrets and tears, you edit it out. Okay, that's common. Way too common in my case.
But what about the opposite?
I wrote up this little scene in Ch. 03 of my latest story. It was a brief page where my characters get onto an elevator. They share the ride with a matronly woman with a standard poodle. The protagonist reflects on the fact that poodles were bred to hunt waterfowl and are really smart, but most people only see them as ridiculously clipped show dogs. Nothing else happens.
The woman gets off the elevator and the story continues. Here's the thing, after I'd written it, I kept thinking, "What did I put that in there? This isn't necessary to the story at all."
Yet everytime I tried to edit it out, something in me said, "No. It stays." And I kept asking myself, "Why?" I honestly could not figure out why I'd written it or why it had to stay. It didn't detract from the story, and it was nice for ambience and maintaining the tension...but it bugged me that it seemed more important than that.
When I submitted the story, the mysterious poodle scene was still there.
It took one of the readers to finally tell me why I couldn't edit it out. Usually, I pretty much know all the themes I've put into a story, but I'd missed one. There's an entire theme about disguises, about hiding one's true self--or revealing it. One of the readers to leave a comment on my story pointed this out.
So there I was, slapping my forehead and saying, "That's why I had to keep the damn poodle." Because everything in the story was about what people seemed to be vs. what they really were.
Any of you had experiences like this? You put something into a story that seems indulgent and useless, don't know why you did it, can't bring yourself to edit it out...and then realize its significance only later, when someone else points it out to you?
Talking about the writing process here: Curious thing happened with my lastest story--or maybe not so curious, as I'm sure this has happened to others.
You know how common it is, I'm sure, to write up a story, have a part in it that you love, the best thing you've ever written...and yet, as you start to edit, you know that this beautiful, lovely part has to go. Maybe it's description or dialogue or a scene, and it's great...but every time you read it, you're forced to admit: it slows the action, does nothing for the story, is self-indulgent...etc.
It has to go. You hate to do it, you try to think up every excuse t keep it. You hold on till the last minute, but, finally and with deep regrets and tears, you edit it out. Okay, that's common. Way too common in my case.
But what about the opposite?
I wrote up this little scene in Ch. 03 of my latest story. It was a brief page where my characters get onto an elevator. They share the ride with a matronly woman with a standard poodle. The protagonist reflects on the fact that poodles were bred to hunt waterfowl and are really smart, but most people only see them as ridiculously clipped show dogs. Nothing else happens.
The woman gets off the elevator and the story continues. Here's the thing, after I'd written it, I kept thinking, "What did I put that in there? This isn't necessary to the story at all."
Yet everytime I tried to edit it out, something in me said, "No. It stays." And I kept asking myself, "Why?" I honestly could not figure out why I'd written it or why it had to stay. It didn't detract from the story, and it was nice for ambience and maintaining the tension...but it bugged me that it seemed more important than that.
When I submitted the story, the mysterious poodle scene was still there.
It took one of the readers to finally tell me why I couldn't edit it out. Usually, I pretty much know all the themes I've put into a story, but I'd missed one. There's an entire theme about disguises, about hiding one's true self--or revealing it. One of the readers to leave a comment on my story pointed this out.
So there I was, slapping my forehead and saying, "That's why I had to keep the damn poodle." Because everything in the story was about what people seemed to be vs. what they really were.
Any of you had experiences like this? You put something into a story that seems indulgent and useless, don't know why you did it, can't bring yourself to edit it out...and then realize its significance only later, when someone else points it out to you?
