I finished reading On Writing last night, and found it to be very worthwhile, especially for someone like me, who is working on a book in a kind of vacuum. Sure I have a couple people who give me feedback, but mostly I am plugging away in obscurity, and sort of wondered if I was headed in the right direction.
Interestingly, a lot of his advice mirrored what writer friends have already told me: avoid the passive voice and use adverbs prudently (hey! an adverb!), stuff like that.
He talked at length about his own process, which is fine, but I think that there is no right or wrong way to do it. For example, he said the first draft can be done in 3-7 months. I suppose it can, if you are a full time writer, and if your technique is to just blaze through without stopping to look at what you’ve just barfed on to the screen. For me, I revise as I write. Is that wrong? I don’t know. But the changes I make serve the story and the characters. So maybe it takes Stephen King a year to finish a novel, but he’s Stephen King — he is prolific and experienced. From the beginning I have kind of assumed it would take me at least two years to finish this book. At least.
Another point that really hit home for me was his emphasis on devoting a lot of time to reading. I was once a more avid reader than I am now. A few years ago I suffered a back injury, which still troubles me. I can’t really lie on my back in bed for long periods anymore, and it’s difficult to sit in badly-designed chairs. I am better now, but I stopped reading as much (I would always read in bed and on the train, and now that I can’t sit on the train anymore, it’s harder to manage a book), and blamed it on my low back pain.
Stephen King was almost killed when a van hit him as he was walking down the road. He suffered numerous horrible injuries, including broken vertebrae. Yet, he finished the book he was working on, and continued to read as well. In other words, I am a pussy, and I just got lazy. I should read some of the unopened books on my shelves. I am trying to finish The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. It’s very dense and the pace is glacial. But I am persisting because I have to know if it’s going anywhere. Not ready to just give up, as I did with Prague, which was retarded.
I am sitting here waiting for UPS. In the meantime, should I try to get another 2000 words out today?
i’m on the other end of the spectrum for writing. i’m a big fan of anne lamott’s view in bird by bird (example chapter title: Shitty First Drafts); so much so that i used to assign a writing book to my acting class. 🙂
this is also why i did nanowrimo. while things may have changed dramatically mid-stream, i always just kept writing (or, perhaps, expanding what i already wrote). this reminds me of how they teach beginning artist to not erase anything.
when i begin rewriting, THEN i will dedicate myself to making it all pretty. i need the screen-barf first, or i quash anything i write.
I’d just like to go on the record as having told you about the adverbs before Stephen King did.
I myself never minded them until just one day it clicked and I was reading a story that relied on them very heavily and I was like “Ugh, this sucks.” And ever since then I’ve noticed it.
Of course I use them but I just try to be spare with them.
A trick I like is to take a paragraph and remove the adverbs, then re-read it and see if they were really that necessary. Too many adverbs usually means that someone is being timid in their description or storytelling.
That was such good advice, Claire. I don’t think any writing/English instructor I’ve had has ever made that observation to me.
I really tried with the Wind Up Bird Chronicle, kept going back to it after giving up a number of times, I think I am 2/3rds of the way through but finally had to wave the white flag, it just never seemed to pick up speed and get to that point where I wasn’t conscious of reading anymore. Kind of disappointed in myself.