In which Silas makes a journey of discovery.
A day of mainly lopping out words. I have had to be ruthless...and shall have to be ruthless again tomorrow. The chapter I am working on at the moment needs to be very much pruned. I don't think I could see that a year or so ago - but I can now.
Page 181 (now of 388).
Page 181 (now of 388).
posted by Clare Dudman at 8:39 pm
5 Comments:
Isn't it strange how differently we see something we've written after a break. I've never left anything a year, but even after a few weeks, the fury-of-writing goggles have dropped off and you wonder how you ever thought that was any good.
Is it literally pruning, or do you sometimes throw whole chunks away and replace them? I sometimes have to do that.
Yes Brain, I feel that it is only after I've left a piece of work can I really stand back and see it. I've gone through this process several times with this novel (not through choice, I have to say).
For me it is both a literal pruning and a removal of bilk. Some can just go without any sort of replacement (an indication of ow superfluous they really were, perhaps); whereas in other places there is a 'wound' that has to be knitted together.
I love the task of pruning, actually. My writing often seems to need the opposite, ie unpacking. That fills me with dread because and I sit there and think, "I said this already. What more do you want from me?" Though I must admit, if something needs unpacking it usually means I'm running way from something, literarily speaking. And that's never a good thing.
I find the hardest part is always making the switch in veiwpoint between writing me, who wants to keep all his lovely (and even ugly) words, and reader me, who'd rather read something that didn't have huge great excursions away from the point.
Wow, Sue - you must have a powerful muse! I don't think I ever find that. I suppose I find that some passages sometimes need a little more description, I guess.
Yes, Stu - I think that's what I'm doing with my pruning really - getting rid of my more self-indulgent passages (which I love so much).
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