My buddy Jody had a mini-rant in the comments of my last post. (Aside: I HATE blogger!! It won't let me cut and paste--I had to retype the darn quote!! Aaarrrggghhh!) It bothered her that I tried to set a daily word count.
". . . you've GOT to just drop the whole "word count" beeswax. Word count means NOTHING. You can write 5000 word and they can all be CRAP. Or you can write one absolutely stellar passage."
". . . I set a goal to work out a particular section, chapter, passage, scene, whatever."
Of course, Jody thought I'd get pissed at this, but I just chuckled. Why? Because there is no one way that works for everyone, in every circumstance. If I had a short article to write, I might approach it in a different manner than I would a 100K novel. But I doubt it.
I've tried the tweak until it's perfect route, BUT I get so bogged down in the immediate that I tend to lose sight of the big picture. For something short, it doesn't matter. Because it's finished in a couple of pages, giving the writer plenty of time to tweak. In other words, writing a 500 word picture book is vastly different than a 25K word novella or a 100K novel. Yes, I have done them all. Each style has it's own challenges and requirements, but they all have to have pacing, plot, character arc, etc.
For my novels, I've recently discovered the 'puke it out' method, otherwise known as the Karin Tabke method. I used it for my middle grade story, MISSING: One Garden Gnome. I don't plot, which means I figure out the story AND characters as I write. I started this story in the mother's third person point of view, but finished it in the eleven-year-old Rhee's point of view. I had to go back and delete the first two chapters. There was no tweaking involved. Trust me, a kid does NOT think like an adult. Oh, the scenes were technically the same, as in the same location, but that's it.
--If I had tweaked this scene until it was perfect, I still would have had to delete my 'perfect words'. They wouldn't have fit my story.
BUT, an online friend sent this question and answer for Dean Koontz link to my goals group. Mr. Koontz is a tweak each page as you go type of writer, sometimes diddling with it for 20-40 PASSES! It works for his process.
So I count words. Jody perfects her scenes. When I still worked at a hospital , I wrote from 4:00-4:45 AM. The only way to find out what works for you is to try different things.
Write on!
I set word counts, but it doesn't always work. Neither does writing a scene, a chapter or whatever always work. At least not for me. Because at some time I might have to cut what I did and start over. Or I might get stuck. It happens.
ReplyDeleteI don't like that it happens, but I accept it. Most of the time, though, I need that goal to write, whether it's something I keep or not. Whether I make my goal or not.
Yep, some days are better than others. :-) Today is a so-so day.
ReplyDeleteI guess that's why it's called the "Creative Process." There's no set rules for how to approach it. And that is the beauty of it.
ReplyDeleteI think I can really relate to Dean Koontz's method of writing. But I also often vomit out masses of story because if I don't I know I'll never remember it later. When the muse speaks, we must listen!
Oh, and I've just GOT to remind myself that any comment I make may turn into the subject of one of your blogs...... :)
Every person is different and I think it takes some experimenting to see what works for your process. AND just because it may work for one book, it doesn't mean it will work for all the books--fickle muse!
ReplyDeleteAnd I LOVE your comments, J! Much of the time my brain blanks out on topics. At least I haven't resorted to posting pictures of my stilettos yet!
Okay, but now I wanna see the stilettos....did you see the photos of my halloween outfit??
ReplyDelete:-) I love my stilettos, though my feet complain about them right around the two hour mark until they go numb.
ReplyDeleteSaw your costume--I need to post mine (bull rider), the kid's (pumpkin headed scarecrow), and hubby's (Gumby)--yeah, he ended up being a 7' Gumby. All we needed to add were fangs and he would have been Monster Vampire Gumby.
On my second book I tweaked and polished every single page until it glowed, before I moved on. Then I subbed it and tweaked and revised after crit comments came back.
ReplyDeleteBut I was just learning. By the end of that first draft I knew the book didn't work. So I started over. In the end I didn't keep one paragraph from that entire first draft. All those hours of polishing and tweaking, all those hours my crit partners spent reading and commenting were a complete waste of time.
So this last book, I puked it up. I set a wordcount goal and made sure I got that many words each day. I wrote as fast and as furiously as I could-- going on instinct, not letting myself think too deeply. I didn't care if the words were crap, since I was looking for the characters and story--words can be fixed later.
The funny thing is that when I finished and read back through it, the words didn't read like crap anyway. The characters were there, the story was there, and the writing for the most part was pretty solid.
And by keeping a wordcount goal, I finished that draft, all 88K of it, in 5.5 weeks. The fastest I've ever written anything.
And now, I can go back and tweak and polish to my heart's content. And yep, even for revisions I have a word count goal. 1000 new words to be revised everyday so I'm moving foward, not just playing with the same scene/chapter over and over again. Once I reach those 1000 words, however--I can go back and tweak previously written words if I feel they still need it.
So far this appoach seems to be working for me. I've finished the first chapter already and have it out to crit partners---three days ahead of schedule. I think I'll be able to finish up the second chapter this weekend, putting me a full week ahead of schedule.
So for me--the puke and THEN tweak method words the best.
It took me four complete manuscripts to come to the realization that NO ONE should look at my work until it's complete and revised at least once. Part of the reason is so they don't effect (I almost wrote 'infect'. Freudian slip? I think NOT!) MY story with their opinion.
ReplyDeleteI think you might be surprised at how quickly you revise, Trish. I know I was when I worked on MOGG--yeah, and added 10,000 words--I finished it in less than two weeks. Okay, it was only a 45K word middle grade novel, but still. . .
It might be different if I was going to attempt to get my current project published, but I'm not. So the fact that nobody else will ever read/critique it certainly gives me carte blanche. :)
ReplyDeleteWell, I am very slow at revising because I play around with the words so much- trying different arrangements and word choices until I've found a combination I love.
ReplyDeleteWhich means I just creep along, but heck I have fun.
The whole purpose of setting the 1K word goal, was to force me to move on--othewise I could play with the same section for days and never get anywhere.
I'm with you, Trish....it has to read JUST right. I find that reading it out loud really helps....somehow HEARING it is much different than just reading it to myself.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I would like to let everyone know that Margaret is the 2009 winner of "Best Birthday Card." And it was a BIG year to win, seeing as everybody was trying to outdo each other for my 50th.....
WOW! I won a contest that I didn't even KNOW about!! WooHoo!!
ReplyDelete*doing stupid dance--yanno, the mixing arms, shimmying butt thing*
Buzzapp!
Hehehe *giggles maniacally*