Re: How do... YOU... do... "IT"?

"Nicola Browne" <nicky.matthews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:c68b75ef1791b401364edeb4dad9913c.8364@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> "Catja Pafort" <usenet@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:1h6bqcj.1s1bqwn1s8tlh5N%usenet@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
>> Sudden Disruption buried, under a lot of spam, the following:
>>
>> >I see writing as :
>>
>> > Inspiration
>> > Digestion
>> > Capture
>> > Arrangement
>> > Polish
>> > Presentation
>>
>> See? That's _useful_.
>>
>> I don't think my writing process is quite the same, but this is
>> beginning to rattle _something_ loose, so I'll just flag this and let it
>> ferment a bit.
>>
>
> Mine is write
> digest
> arrange
> write some more
> edit
> send.
>
> Inspiration if it occurs at all is
> not a discrete event but occurs during
> any of the above.

I think my process is a lot closer to yours than what Sudden Disruption
describes, though I *do* do a certain amount of "pre-writing" (which I think
in his version is covered by the "inspiration" and "digestion" parts). If I
were to categorize the whole thing in stages, though, inspiration wouldn't
be on the list anywhere as a particular stage. I have a hard time thinking
of it as part of *any* of the stages, though I'm sure it's in there
somewhere. It's just...not that important.

I think I'd start with something like:

(Input)
(Composting)
Construction of scaffolding
Growth and Research
----
Writing
Final polish

I don't count "submission" as part of the writing process, because six or
eight keystrokes to change the format to standard ms. and then printing and
mailing, is, to my mind, a secretarial chore rather than a writing task.

Input and Composting are in parens because they're more-or-less
continuous -- everything is material -- and they are almost never aimed
directly at a particular book or story. The scaffolding, for me, is the
first sketchy worldbuilding and first disposable plot outline; from that, I
can usually tell what I need to know more about, so the next bit is the
research part, which feeds back into the plot and worldbuilding (growth)
until things get to critical mass. And then I start writing, write the
book, and do the final polish.

But none of the stages are as separate and distinct and orderly as this
implies. For instance, I was still doing research reading while working on
the editorial revisions request for the ms. that just got turned in; the
"scaffolding" plot outlines keep getting written for about the first
fourteen chapters of the book. Like that.

Having taken a quick look at Sudden Disruption's editorial program, I had
two reactions: first, "This is a really great solution to a problem that I
don't have." And second, "What a wonderful cat-vacuuming toy!" In other
words, as an editing program, it's probably absolutely terrific and
wonderful and just what the doctor ordered for anybody who works the way
Sudden Disruption does, and not terribly useful for those of us who don't,
except perhaps as a neat toy.

Patricia C. Wrede


.

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