Comments | roku_kyu: Snow, sunshine, lollipops...and revenge

roku_kyu

Snow, sunshine, lollipops...and revenge

Apr 06, 2009 01:02

Well, I’m just full of sunshine and lollipops tonight, probably because it’s snowing like the dickens, and I love snow and winter, whereas the rest of my family (and the city and the region) are grousing about Where the hell is spring, already?!! We have at least 2 inches of snow on the ground so far, and the trees are flocked (they’ve limited ( Read more... )

Comments 6

nekonezumi April 7 2009, 00:32:36 UTC

Glad you got to see Julene after such a long time, and it sounds like the two of you had a valuable discussion!

Re: tossing the first chapters of Mute. One of my professors once said that almost every writer will eventually toss out the first chapter or so of a first draft, because that's the part where we're just getting started and slipping into the world we've created, so there's bound to be more exposition than strictly necessary. When she said that to our class, I did marvel at your intuition, since that was many years ago when you were really just starting out in the writing business. I say it's a sign of your innate destiny as a novelist, so don't be afraid of the red pen, but DEFINITELY save what you cut in another file!!! I think, out of all the scenes I've cut, I've only went back and restored one of them--but if that one had been deleted, I'd have been quite upset ( ... )

roku_kyu April 8 2009, 04:51:16 UTC

"Intuition"... "innate destiny as a novelist"...

(sings) Have I toooold you lately that I love youuuuuu?

Seriously, thanks for the kind words, girl. It's true that I find courage to cut large chunks of my best-beloved novel, because I've witnessed your admirable ability to do the same (sometimes under duress ^ ~).

I will follow your advice, however, and hang onto my cuts, not because I see them as DVD extras (hee!) but because I believe in keeping a history of my progress. That's why I never altered White Stones, other than breaking up the dialogue into separate lines. - -;; I need to know from whence I came. (Why does that sound like a judge sentencing a convict to hang? Or maybe I read too many British murder mysteries.)

itsthedee April 7 2009, 19:31:32 UTC

Geh. Opening chapters. I feel like I'm constantly telling my writing circle (usually in a run-on of a sentence, like so:) "Okay so I know it's not the best opening but this is still the rough draft so don't worry I'm going to fix it later but let me know if it *completely* sucks okay?" So, yes. (sweat) I sympathize ( ... )

roku_kyu April 8 2009, 04:38:44 UTC

Thanks for the good wishes! I wish I were writing more than I'm actually writing (oh, for the productive days of November!), but I keep promising myself, once the Easter holiday is over...sigh ( ... )

itsthedee April 8 2009, 15:23:40 UTC

Interesting web site. I'll have to look more into it later. And yeah, I've had arguments with my writer buddies about opening paragraphs before. I felt bad doing it, but I had to sort of ruthlessly tell a friend that he needed to scrap about half of his first chapter because, while a sprawling description of countryside-and-palace might make for a fun "as the credits roll" intro to a movie, it made for a boring first page. I think I oh-so-eloquently told him that he needed to "grab his readers by the balls from the first sentence and never let go."

Another writing circle friend jokingly said that he was going to begin every novel with the sentence, "He put the gun in his mouth." We all agreed that it made for an excellent hook... though he might want to think of something different for his children's stories. (heh)

Also, I approve of you referring to Borders instead of Barnes & Noble in your example. My Bookstore of Employment approves, too. ^_^

kryssa_girl April 21 2009, 14:19:09 UTC

Hey, sorry it's taken damn near forever for me to make a comment. To cut my excuses short, I don't have a personal computer right now, so I can't read nor comment on my friends' multitude of thought-provoking entries as quickly as I'd like. I will refrain from commenting on the scientific manuscript BS; there's little I can say that won't be unfamiliar. But I'm happy to hear that you've been spending some quality time as a real person - seeing Julene, being a good mom/spouse, even doing some writing. Such things are good for the soul ( ... )