Just Thinking, That's all.

matociquala, katallen, and I regularly go on these rampages where we get completely meta about writing. It's so fun. Today Bear was talking about truepenny'S completely smart post about how writing got separated from other arts, and why this isn't so hot of a thing... and the next thing you know I'm being smacked around by the fact that I don't use my art training when writing, and I really should.

It's actually been a very meta week, but I haven't been talking too much about the things I've sudden;y realized and stuff in my LJ. Bad Chelsea!

So here. I'm thinking about revision. Bear gave me a new quote about art and writing: "First draft is a pencil sketch. That's all. You can fix, revise, alter, add, layer, erase people entirely. You don't have to get it right right out of the gate.

And even once you lay down the oils, you can still paint over them or squidge them around."

So yeah, I'm thinking about revision, and I think that metaphor works as a way to argue it. I get the first draft down, and then it's time to revise. I'm thinking that there isn't really a general step by step method to revising a story - that you can only learn how to revise this story. But there has to be some things that always happen when you're fleshing out the sketch you made in the first draft.

one thing that always happens is that I find sentences to fix. better ways to word things, repetitions to cut, stuff like that. This is a last step thing for me but really I'll tinker the whole time I'm revising, just as soon as I see something that needs changing.

If I have feedback on a story then I will try to figure out what out of the various opinions I should take a closer look at, and try to determine what people mean if it isn't immediately obvious. I tried something that seemed to work for using reader feedback - I grabbed an excel spreadsheet and every time a reviewer said that they were confused by something or had to question something, I wrote it down and tallied how many people had the same question - and how many people mentioned that they caught that plot point. Then I can see which issues are really important, and think of a way to fix or clarify.

It was really good. I had some questions that after it was done consolidated into a larger issue, I found some good solutions to those problems.

something else I do is a scene by scene examination, I check to see that the scene is complete, and that it does things to keep the story moving forward, and I check to make sure that each scene is linked to the one immediately before it, and the one immediately after it, at minimum.

Then there's the little things. Picking things out of the story that are symbols of the story. things that parallel each other. repeating motifs. This one's a little harder for me but I keep working at it.

And then there are details. I'm sometimes really terrible at details. I'll get a couple in on the first draft, but I always need more.

then there's the stuff that you do when you've got most of it blocked - the refinement of the sentences, and how they flow and inform from one to the next. omit needless words. something that was bugging you about the plot jumps out at you, and so you've got to shoehorn it in. omit needless words. an opportunity to get yet another motif repetition presents itself, so you grab it. omit needless words.

And then you walk away and don't look at it for a while so you can forget, and do something else. and then read it again, and see if you've learned another thing that will improve the story. I find that there usually is.

Did I Miss anything?

Well, other than a silly meme. Nabbed it from tweekstar

Your Love Situation by Amberishjewel
Username?
Your Love Is...	Fiery
During Lovemaking You Act...	Like a volcano, hot & steamy
Your Partner Is...	Your master
Your Partner Has Said That You...	Are their favorite person
Your Love is Summed Up In A Quote.	"Love is bittersweet"
Created with quill18's MemeGen!

just call me the one-eyed mistress of cat-waxing.

since I have my LJ account paid for a year (thankyouthankyouthankyou!) I figure it's time to create my own mood icon set. I've seen some cool created themes, and they seem to have a certain unity of appearance...

I'm not so sure I'm going to do that. I'm thinking I'm going to use works of art whenever I can for my icons, but I doubt I'll be able to get it any more unified than that.

and hey! can anybody help me? I'm thinking of this painting, and it's driving me nuts that I can't remember the name of it or who it's by. yeah, I see you all groaning. It's (name's) dream, and it is fairly famous. it has a woman who looks like she might be awakening after falling asleep in a field. she's facing a barn or farmhouse in the background, and I seem to remember that the sky is turbulent with clods - quite an impressive big prairie sky. it's a 20th century American painting, and I've heard it labelled as postmodern. Does anyone know which painting I'm talking about?