Comments on: Writing as sculpture

By: Stephanie Booth

Stephanie Booth — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 21:45:26 +0000

I’m a first-draft person. Well, I’m not sure about when I write fiction, as I don’t (yet… need to get back into the groove of the 50 word stories) — but I hardly ever edit anything that I write.

If I do, it’s minor cosmetic stuff. Or maybe swap two paragraphs and change the first word so they fit together well in that order.

When I was in school and we did creative writing, I would usually write a first draft (we were using pens in those days, whee!) and then copy it again cleanly with a few minor cosmetic modifications. So I guess my way of doing things is not really linked to “fiction or not”.

But who knows, the day I actually get around to writing a story, things might change!

As for writing long-hand, RSI has made that impossible — I can write about 5-6 lines well, half a page legibly, and then it turns into disaster. Plus, I’m so used to composing on the keyboard that the lack of “features” like “delete” and “go back here and add a word or two” or “hmm, keep that for later and start writing higher up again” make the process very awkward for me.

By: neil...

neil... — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 11:22:44 +0000

I’m with you on the first draft. I, too, write long-hand. It is a process of getting everything out of my head and in to a Moleskine, a process that seems to cement the story in my mind to and extent that in writing the second draft I rarely referred to the actual notes. The initial draft consist of frequent notes such as “this bit is rubbish”, “stuff happens here to get them home” or “forgot to mention the hat”.
For me, planning too carefully at the beginning would dampen the the thrill of discovery as the story develops, particularly when the characters take you, the author, by surprise in their actions or words. Lots of planning keeps the author in control and sometimes you need to let our the reins and switch from composing text to transcribing what your characters decide for themselves. Sure, you can write yourself into a corner, but again, that is the thrill. The reader goes on a journey with a novel, so why not the author, after all, we have to spend so much more time wrapped up in it.

By: Vincent

Vincent — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 11:22:40 +0000

One of the reasons I used to hate re-writes (compared to now, where I only view them with mild hostility), was because every time I went back to the story, I ended up changing everything and the only consequence of that was having two first drafts of two different stories, instead of a second draft that improved on the first.

However, that leads me to another discussion of the sculpting analogy I was having with Victoria, where she alluded to there being a finished statue in the block of marble and the writing was simply a case of finding it (though she may have disagreed with my interpretation of her views after the fact). This meant each decision could be defined as right or wrong, depending on whether it led to that hidden sculpture.

Naturally, my view differed. There isn’t a right story to be discovered, no statue waiting to be found. Any tale written with the requisite craft can be ‘right’, but… whether it’s good or not is a different question. Trying to answer that question raised a debate that got a little messier.