I'm belaboring my revisions this morning, and it's going well, but very slowly.
And as I'm working through my sixth month of good, solid revising, I see people around me - in blogs, on facebook, through twitter - who are churning out books at lightening speed. Who write a book in a month, do quick revisions of the checking-for-typos variety, and then send out or self-publish. I've seen people who talk about how long revisions take and then are done within two weeks.
I know we are not all the same. I know we do not all write at the same speed, or end up with first drafts that need the same amount of time and attention in the revising process, and I know that I would be working faster were I doing it on my own and not revising with an advisor through school.
But I can't help but know that some of these people - many of them - are not writing books that are really well-written. (You, dear readers, are excluded from this, because I know what YOU write is amazing, because I get to read a lot of it!). The books they write may be entertaining, but not necessarily "well written" in the terms that a writing class might define it.
Which brings me to the question I posed on Google+ this morning:
I watch people churning out books in a month, revising in a week, and I labor over a sentence for hours, revising a chapter a month in painstaking fashion. And I wonder, does "good writing" matter, or if you have an entertaining story do readers not care if you have tons of extra words, unspecific details and bland verbs, repetitive sentences, and too many flashbacks? Does good writing matter, or only a good story?
What say you, dear bloggers? There's no right or wrong answer here. I'm just interested. And do you consider yourself one of those that labors, or flies through the writing/revising stages?
It's a different readership I think.
ReplyDeleteI know that the more I write, the pickier I am about what I read. Good story isn't enough anymore. I want good story and good writing. Some people don't care. Some people do.
Even when i write - there are times when I'm going more for story and sometimes I"m working on both.
The problem is that i have a book which (in my opinion) is well-written, but doesn't have a strong enough catch, and it's slowing the publication of the book down.
I'm REALLY curious to see what this pub house has to say about another MS they have which has a good catch, but where the writing isn't as good.
Should be interesting . ..
It's a different readership I think.
ReplyDeleteI know that the more I write, the pickier I am about what I read. Good story isn't enough anymore. I want good story and good writing. Some people don't care. Some people do.
Even when i write - there are times when I'm going more for story and sometimes I"m working on both.
The problem is that i have a book which (in my opinion) is well-written, but doesn't have a strong enough catch, and it's slowing the publication of the book down.
I'm REALLY curious to see what this pub house has to say about another MS they have which has a good catch, but where the writing isn't as good.
Should be interesting . ..
I agree with Jolene. It totally depends on the reader!
ReplyDeleteI think good writing matters a lot...but like others said, maybe not to everyone. That being said, I'm terribly slow. Not because I'm so great and it's so good, but because I'm just slow! haha!
ReplyDeleteIt takes me FOREVER so you are not alone. I think that good writing matters, but more importantly, you should do what matters to you and write a book that you are proud of. Just don't throw some sort of junk out there that you don't absolutely LOVE. Write the book, the way you intend to write it. :) And hang in there. Your book will have it's day in the sun before you know it!
ReplyDeleteAbby - maybe you've hit on the important thing: that we feel good about what we've written. I write slowly and sometimes I'm pleased with my early drafts, and other times, like this current one, I need more time on revisions.
ReplyDeleteI like entertaining. I don't like terribly written. However, flowery prose with nothing behind it doesn't do anything for me either.
ReplyDeleteSome might say that the Harry Potter books aren't "well written". However, they are very entertaining and engaging. Also, her characters and world building are unmatched.
If I could write every day for the amount of time I'd like, I could probably churn out a first draft in about 2 months. I know others who can write faster than me and/or write shorter works in a month. Revising takes some time, but one thing I have definitely learned over the years is to just write and not edit while I write. And, I write FAR cleaner than I used to...so extra words are never there...cliches are never there...I show instead of tell right from the get go...almost as soon as I type something wrong, my brain tells me no and it's deleted immediately and reworded correctly. The editing phase is far shorter. My biggest problem is the beginning...once I'm into the story...it just flows. I often have to rework my first chapter. I think if you want to be a success in this business, you can't take as long as it took to write the first book....readers won't want to wait 4-5 years for a new title.
ReplyDeleteYeah. Five years of revising and editing. And constantly second guessing myself!
ReplyDeleteThing is... I know it's good writing. And I know from experience that's the way I work. Some people can write faster and whip it into shape quickly. Some of those even end up with well written work.
But if entertaining is all that matters, some less-than-stellar writing is acceptable.
Just not to me I want to be stellar.
I have to take my time.
I also like what Abby has said. Feeling like you have done your best keeps your integrity in check, and I'd guess easier to believe in your book when you send it out there. Writing, whether published or not, is all about the doing, the practicing. Pieces are never finished for me. I always feel like I could fix more but I also need to learn when it is time to just let it go. Maybe for some the letting go proces is a lot faster!
ReplyDelete