To follow up on the
last post, this one now proceeds into the nuts and bolts of the Process – the
mechanics of writing. This is a little more complex and elaborate, so it serves
everyone best to discuss individual pieces of it across a few posts to develop
all that this stage holds. And the simplest part is the mechanics of being a
writer.
Being a writer is, at
its core, writing. What this means is when you are writing, you shouldn’t worry
about anything else but putting one word after another. Don’t think about
whether a particular sentence should be in the subjunctive. Don’t contemplate what
adverb sounds just right. Don’t sweat how to spell the word “occurrence.” And
definitely don’t go back and forth about how much to put in or take out for the
description of a scene. These are all important, but not for the mechanics of
writing. They are mechanical processes that come later. For now, just write.
Ernest Hemingway
supposedly once said, “Write drunk, edit sober.” The takeaway from this is
hopefully not to develop a drinking problem, but to write without reservations,
restrictions, or inhibitions. And a part of that is to not write like an
editor, thinking about all the parts of grammar and so on. It is about placing
words down and telling a story. It is going free-verse, letting everything
spill onto the page. This is not as easy as it might sound, but it is very
important to the Process.
A part of this is
about giving your inner writer a few liberties. When you are writing, tell
yourself that these words can be changed; that errors can be corrected.
Understand that there will be slip-ups, problems, and missteps. The first draft
is never perfect, nor should it be, because the story grows even as you tell
it. All of these problems will come out as you write, but they are not the
concern of the writer. The editor needs to worry about that, and while you are
writing, that editor in you shouldn’t even be in the same room.
Editing is a separate
part of the process, and should be done with an entirely different temperament.
As drunk as the writer should be, that’s how sober the editor should be.
Editing is simple, pragmatic, and to-the-point. The only thing that changes in
editing is whether you are editing closely (grammar, verb conjugation, whether
or not to put in that last comma, etc.), or editing for broad content (does
this piece serve a purpose, do the events flow naturally, is there continuity
for the reader, and so forth). Then there is the edit run where we ask the
questions we avoided as a writer – Is this the right adverb? Do the words match
the way the character speaks? Is this sentence effective? This part of editing will
be discussed at a later point, but for now the takeaway is that at no time
should the editor and the writer share the same space.
One of the editor’s
responsibilities, however, is making sure that everything that the writer creates
aligns with the purpose of that essay, chapter, novel, etc. This is the
structuring part of writing, which is another valuable part of writing
mechanics and the process in general.
And it will be the
subject of the next post.
Catchy post title, but I would need to be drunk to near the point of passing out before I would choose to just lay my words out in any form. I have the intense need to think about it, consider typing, think some more, consider looking at my laptop's keyboard, and then considering my writing some more. About 6 months to a year later of my writing process, I am ready to type. Then it flows. If I type too soon, I feel more frustration and much less flow.
ReplyDeleteIt still sounds like you understand that once you start typing, you continue typing. The Process we perform before the typing is just as important as the typing part. I hope the takeaway from this is that when you think, think intensely. When you consider, consider the hell out of it. And then when you type, TYPE!
DeleteThis post reminds of you always talking about your 'editor's hat' ... I always picture this Jim-duality, Jekyll and Hyde thing you have going at home.
ReplyDelete:)
Indeed it is a different kind of me. The writer is James, the editor is Jim. People love James's writing but hate it when Jim critiques them
Delete