Tuesday, May 03, 2005
Gotta make this one fairly short. I have a meeting with Marvel at three, and before then I need to get something off to Steve Jones, a note concerning my short story, "From Cabinet 34, Drawer 6," which will be included in Weird Shadows Over Innsmouth. Somehow the day has gotten away from me. I need to be working on the outline for Daughter of Hounds. With luck, I can manage to salvage most of the day. With luck. Yesterday was taken up with all the little things that needed doing to the ms. of Frog Toes and Tentacles before I sent it off to Bill Schafer at Subterranean Press. I still have to do a polish on each story, as they came out just a little rougher than my "first drafts" usually do. Most times, the story you read printed is my "first draft." I rarely ever write in drafts. This is true for my short stories, novels, and comics (less so with comics, as revisions are usually requested). It just usually comes out the way I want it the first time. Of course, this also makes me a very slow writer, as I do almost all my rewrites as I'm writing, not later on when a draft is finished. I work on a sentence until it's perfect (to my eyes), and only then do I move on to the next sentence. It's probably a ridiculous and maddening way to write, so I'm not recommending it, just saying that's how I do it. That's how I've always done it.
I know there are "creative" writing instructors who tell you not to "be afraid to produce a bad draft." Personally, I find the thought of not getting it right the first time kind of appalling. Somewhere, I picked up the convinction that one should always strive to do things right the first time, and it applies as much to writing as anything else.
Which makes this situation with Daughter of Hounds especially painful. If I'd just done it right the first time...
Blah, blah, blah. Don't listen to me. Write however you write. Do what works for you. I believe that's one of the few useful, practical bits of advice any author can ever offer anyone who wants to be an author. It's right up there with "buy a dictionary" and "don't quit your day job."
By the way, Subterranean Press is now taking orders for both To Charles Fort, With Love and Frog Toes and Tentacles. Note that the cover layout featured on the website for TCF,WL is not the final layout.
1:19 PM
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