Don't look back

[altariel]

This week I’ve been revising a story. I read somewhere once that revision is one of the chief pleasures of writing and this time round I really got what that was all about. It was enormous fun. One piece of advice I had in mind all week was something David Almond says on his website about revision: “Go through your printed pages with a pen. Cross out the things that you think don't work. Put in new and better things.” I think this is a great piece of advice, so no-nonsense. When I finished the first draft, I thought my story was without doubt the best thing ever to emerge from a keyboard. When I went back to revise it, it was: “Oh, that’s manifestly crap, this’ll be much better.” Because I always secretly know when something is a bit shit, I’m just in denial about it, thanks to massive insecurity about the first draft. Obviously it is much more pleasurable to be putting down things that are good and work rather than things which are a bit rubbish.

The other piece of advice I kept in mind was something emeraldsedai once said to me: “It’s not excess words so much as excess thoughts.” I think this really gets to the heart of a real pleasure of the revision process, to do with sifting through all the ideas I have in mind, and deciding which are the ones worth picking up and therefore threading throughout the narrative. Crafting in an idea, finding different ways to communicate it, either through a certain image, or the way a scene is set up, or just simply through choosing a particular word with the right connotations, is one of my favourite things about writing. With this particular piece I had all this stuff in my head about one of the character’s relationship to his father. It all became attached to a particular image (Plato’s cave, for what it’s worth), so I had to start setting that up too, but the more of it went in, the more it started to deform the whole. So – heave ho. It’s all there in my head, anyway, and I imagine there might be residual trace elements. Hopefully the texture of the backstory will remain, at least. So, sometimes you’re cutting not just to put in new and better things, you’re also cutting things that you like and think are good ideas, only there isn’t a place for them here. I’m sure I’ll find a use for this image and associated ideas in one form or another one day.

In other news: kradical has just posted the table of contents for Big Finish's May 2008 Doctor Who: Short Trips anthology The Quality of Leadership. This contains my short story The Slave War: a Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton) story with Ben, Jamie and Polly; one of the leaders in question is Spartacus.

In other other news: my short story Sea Change, first published in Foundation 100, has been selected to appear in Gardner Dozois’s Year’s Best Science Fiction, Vol. 25. I’m really quite pleased.

Comments

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

In other other news: my short story Sea Change, first published in Foundation 100, has been selected to appear in Gardner Dozois’s Year’s Best Science Fiction, Vol. 25. I’m really quite pleased.

So you should be. Heartiest congratulations!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Many thanks. I'm pretty gobsmacked, actually!

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Congrats on all of the fabulous news! Especially on making the Year's Best anthology!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm a bit blown away by it, actually, keep pinching myself: "Did that just happen?" :-)

[avon7.livejournal.com]

Well done! You deserve to be very pleased.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :-D

[kathyh]

Many congratulations. What excellent news.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Thank you :-)

[gair.livejournal.com]

ALTARIEL = YEAR'S BEST = awesome. Well done.

(Also you win at writing things called Sea Change!)

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Thank you :-) And yes, I have been chuckling about the Sea Change thing!

[julesjones]

Lots and lots of congratulations in order, then. :-)

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Thank you :-) And congrats on your bestseller status ;-D

[the-wild-iris.livejournal.com]

Best sci-fi of the year and a professional writer in two fandoms! That's brilliant. Many congratulations!

So, sometimes you’re cutting not just to put in new and better things, you’re also cutting things that you like and think are good ideas, only there isn’t a place for them here.

Killing your babies... however difficult, I think it's always a good sign for the story; it means the narrative is taking on a life of its own, and not just having you (one) consciously manipulate what goes into it.

And readers will still find plenty of imagery the author never intended :)

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Yay! All I need now is to get a commission to write a Blake's 7 trilogy, or perhaps ghost-write a companion volume to The Children of Hurin on the Tuor story!

it means the narrative is taking on a life of its own, and not just having you (one) consciously manipulate what goes into it.

Oh that's a really good point: and narrative, like most other things in life, is generally worsened for being over-controlled.

[rfmcdpei.livejournal.com]

Congratulations! Those are both wonderful achievements.

What you said about economy of thought in writing is something I'll try to remember.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Thank you, very much!

I think it's a brilliant insight about excess thoughts (thanks emeraldsedai): and that good thoughts might not be adding anything extra to one's argument, and may even be detracting.

[communicator.livejournal.com]

You're in the Dozois? Wow, I'd have bought that in any case, it's a standard. A real touchstone. Brilliant news.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Thanks :-) I'm really pleased about this, it feels as if the slog is starting to see some pay off.

[executrix.livejournal.com]

Jumping up and down and squeeing! Hurrah for justice!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Bless you :-) Thank you!

[fallingtowers.livejournal.com]

Congrats on your new publications! Go you!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Thank you! And yay for your icon!

[ozarque.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on the Dozois Year's Best...! That's terrific.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Thank you, very much!

[archbishopm.livejournal.com]

Oh my god you are together in a book with Greg Egan!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I feel like I'm in Forrest Gump or else Zelig!

[jmswallow.livejournal.com]

Well done, Una. Have cake.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Jim :-)

[edge-of-ruin.livejournal.com]

Oh, oh, oh! How fantastic! Well done you!

(And what you say about editing rings so many bells ;-) even for someone who writes as little as me).

[altariel.livejournal.com]

*big cheesy grin!* Thank you!

And glad the editing thoughts chime :-)

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

Excellent work! And just in time, as I should be free to read books again from February 23!

By the way, there was a programme on Radio 4 this week called The Advance of the Giant Crabs (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/pip/j7quh/). Apparently Stalin introduced them to the Arctic and they're now heading down the Norwegian coast. Obviously, I thought "Macra!"

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Hurray!

My god, those crabs: The biggest weigh up to 12 kilos with a pincer span of five feet. That is a pincer span the height of me.

[katlinel.livejournal.com]

Congratulations! And yay for revising your words becoming a good experience.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Thank you, my dear :-)

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

Congratulations from me too. :)

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Thank you :-)

[raspberryfool.livejournal.com]

Many congratulations, Alt. Go go go go go You :-)

And yes, editing. i wrote a short story some drivel in a few hours as 'practice' last night - between the first draft and final version i'd cut about half of the original text and revised it. I find i need to say more using less words. But getting the ideas down, taking a break and returning to it is part of the process, IMO.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Thank you, kind sir!

Yes, say more with less. And that break is absolutely vital.

[paranoidangel]

Congrats for both of those great pieces of news! Clearly, I'll have to buy that Big Finish book now, regardless of whether there are any Harry stories in it.

If you keep up at this rate you'll get bombarded with autograph requests for your books next Redemption you're at :)

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Thank you! And particularly for buying-without-Harry (here's the list of stories with Doctors and companions - the 4th Doctor story has Romana and K9). I have been watching the episodes on UKTV-wotsit at the moment, which all have Harry in, and I had forgotten what a darling he is.

[kerravonsen]

(Makes note of writerly advice)

has just posted the table of contents for Big Finish's May 2008 Doctor Who: Short Trips anthology The Quality of Leadership. This contains my short story The Slave War: a Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton) story with Ben, Jamie and Polly; one of the leaders in question is Spartacus.

Yay!

ETA: and I was so pleased by the first bit, that I didn't even notice the paragraph after. Wow! Best of the Year! Go you!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Yay for Doctor Who! And thank you!

[trixieleitz]

Hooray for enjoying editing and also for being published, especially in such august company. I'm really quite congratulating you :P

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Yay! Thank you! And yay otter! :-D

[glitterboy1.livejournal.com]

Many congratulations on being among the year's best! But of course you are!

As for the revising, it must be lovely to still be finding new understandings and joys in the writing process. I'm glad that you've had such a good time with it this week.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Aw, thank you, gb!

And, yes, it is good to realize I'm finding out new things about writing. The past couple of years, doing something other than fanfic, I've felt like a beginner again. But now it's starting to stop being scary and starting to become fun again.

[toft-froggy.livejournal.com]

I like revising stories too, but I find it very time-consuming; I can spend hours agonizing over the wording, one sentence at a time, and just go into complete denial about bigger things. I tend to do it on the computer, which I think does not help this tendency. Printing it out is better.

In other other news: my short story Sea Change, first published in Foundation 100, has been selected to appear in Gardner Dozois’s Year’s Best Science Fiction, Vol. 25. I’m really quite pleased.


Congratulations again, that really is fabulous.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Printing off definitely helps me: I think it's because it puts me in a wholly different physical relationship with the page, so that I start perceiving the shape of the words and the text differently. I organize the world around me primarily by text and verbally, so altering a "shape" of text that's become familiar really makes a difference. Am I making sense? I'm only on my first cup of coffee, and LJ just munched my first reply.

Thank you for the congratulations, and I really am very grateful for your help on this story. It was a murderous write, and I wouldn't have got through it without wise eyes looking over it.