- Joined
- Jan 27, 2007
- Messages
- 471
- Reaction score
- 110
- Location
- Oregon Coast
- Website
- www.catherinebusinelle.com
I know there have been many discussions about the difference between editing as we write and just getting it all out as fast as possible before returning for edits. I'm wondering, though, how that affects style for some writers (as opposed to how it affects whether or not one can finish a story or whether one writes more slowly than they could write-then-edit).
I'm starting to think that speed-writing, under serious pressure, is the only thing that can turn off the fancy talker in my head. When I put off writing for my critique group until the last possible minute (sheer idiot procrastination), my pages are invariably better and get far more positive responses with fewer change suggestions. I still need plenty of surface polishing, but not as much sentence gutting or paragraph reorganization.
This may be because speed forces me to say whatever I'm trying to say, without trying to pretty up my language and get too writer-y about it. Instead of saying something bizarre about the curtain of her hair being like a muddy waterfall, I say she had long, brown hair. (That's a bad example of two things I wouldn't write, to exaggerate my point, by the way--don't judge my writing on them!)
Does rushing through a scene keep you from getting tangled up in your own writer-ese? Do you have other tricks for keeping it simple?
I'm starting to think that speed-writing, under serious pressure, is the only thing that can turn off the fancy talker in my head. When I put off writing for my critique group until the last possible minute (sheer idiot procrastination), my pages are invariably better and get far more positive responses with fewer change suggestions. I still need plenty of surface polishing, but not as much sentence gutting or paragraph reorganization.
This may be because speed forces me to say whatever I'm trying to say, without trying to pretty up my language and get too writer-y about it. Instead of saying something bizarre about the curtain of her hair being like a muddy waterfall, I say she had long, brown hair. (That's a bad example of two things I wouldn't write, to exaggerate my point, by the way--don't judge my writing on them!)
Does rushing through a scene keep you from getting tangled up in your own writer-ese? Do you have other tricks for keeping it simple?