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Details, details...

The excuse of slow-writing knows no bounds. At 60,000 words, I could pat myself on the back; but many others crush my speed with their dedicated writing schedules. No matter - I have excuses galore. (although, I have given up some activities for Lent that directly influence my own writing schedule - so hopefully I'll get moving here)
Anyone who reads my blog entries, and bless you if you do, may realize that I rarely speak of good writing/criticism/grammar/punctuation. There are plenty that do, and they do it well. To write well takes practice, patience, and a whole lot of opinion -- the friendly stranger sort. My advice to writing well: join a writing group, and there are plenty online to do it. There I learned a lot, and I learned when it was no longer useful. (it is hard to critique chapter five without reading chapters one through four - grammar aside) As you may know, I'm all about world-building and being immersed in a solid story - even if it spans many books.


The experience of writing Epic Fantasy can be grueling. Details are the lifeblood of realism (ok, and writing really good too...lol) And if you don't love it, really love it, I don't know how you might do it. That's were my excuse comes in. I'm describing details of a fortress and realize it may not jive with what I wrote a chapter ago. Then I think, dang! There are a lot of new things going on here to keep up with. (I write from an interior outline, but much of what I put on paper comes out of direct imagination) So I decide, I need to go back a little ways and re-read what I have recently written. So I drop back fifty pages and start revising. A small delay of a week, but valuable to the story.


All writers have there own way of completing a tale:  put it all down and re-write later, give it to others to glean, or don't re-write at all. (the exceptionally talented)  Me? Write some. Re-read some. Revise. Revise again. Revise later again. Anyway, that's part of the toil of world-building, but I'd rather write little else.

Comments

Anonymous said…
wonderfully said...
Anonymous said…
I just can hear you say "dang". Great blog. I mean it. I love your writing! Keep it up.....

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