The current issue of Mslexia has some tips from journalist & novelist Aminatta Forna. They're all good advice, but I particularly liked this one:
When you get stuck, it can be quite useful to go back and work on what you've already written. Perhaps the story has slightly changed since you wrote that chapter? 'Housekeeping' work - revisiting, editing - keeps you going with the flow.
This isn't advice you see very often. More usually, you're told as a writer that going back and editing something stops the flow and is therefore a Bad Thing. But this sounds very sensible, and I've done it myself a few times and found it worked. I just have to be careful not to get so bogged down in the minutiae of whether it should be 'and' or 'but' that I lose track of the story entirely!
5 comments:
I find editing is always better when I've let the piece fester for a while. As soon as I have some emotional distance then I can hack and slay as need be - pretend it isn't mine! My editing doubtless improves my work immeasurably!
Strangely, although I can write while music is playing, I edit better when it is.
Cannot write while music is playing - no it seems write a coherent comment while my son is updating me on his lunch progress...
LOL!
I usually edit a *whole* story better if I've left it to fester, but sometimes this 'fiddling if you're stuck' can be good just for reminding you of what's gone before and getting you back into the flow and feel of the work.
I certainly go back and fiddle. if nothing else it speeds up the later editing pass. it does mean my first sections tend to be more polished than later ones, but that's no biggee
Oh, likewise. It takes me so long to finish a novel that the early sections have often had 2 or 3 years' worth of extra fiddling!
Post a Comment