A few words on hacking out and rewriting from Neal Asher

[Vertigo]

I thought some of you might be interested in this. It's very short just a couple of paragraphs as a blog:

http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/3620296-writing-update

He talks about picking up a plot that feels like its dragging with a new idea forcing him to go back, hack out and rewrite a bunch of stuff. Also has some links and a book recomendation "for those of you who want to get into this writing profession...." As I said above, it's very short yet still quite illuminating. I have seen a number of eactly the same things be discussed here many a time.

I think that link should be fully accessible to non-goodreads account holders.

 

[Ursa major]

Yes, that is accessible. Thanks for the link, Vertigo.

I've heard about the "man with the gun" before; indeed I've used the procedure myself, in writing WiP1: as with Neal Asher's experience, the man isn't a man, the gun isn't a gun, and while the room is a room... But to say more would be to give away a spoiler. Anyway, the whole thrust of WiP1 was changed, including the ending of the book's main story**.



** - As I've mentioned elsewhere, my WiP1 is a prequel; the originally conceived ending - which leads into WiP2 - is still in there, but eleven chapters before the ending of WiP1.

 

[J-Sun]

Seems to be but, if not, it's also available at the main url.

 

[Vertigo]

Ah I hadn't realised it was just a pull down from his normal blog. Thanks J-Sun!

 

[Brian G Turner]

Cheers, Vertigo.

PS - Love Neal's editing tip:

When you reach the editing stage, it is often the case that you can get too involved with the story to detect errors. You can see words in your head that aren’t actually there on the page, sentences blur together and errors escape you, and you follow plot threads and see only the images in your skull. One way round this is to read your work backwards. Yeah, I know that seems strange, but what I mean is that you start by reading through the last paragraph, then the one preceding it, and so forth. This kills your involvement in the overall story-telling and enables you to focus on the grammar, the spelling, the ‘nuts and bolts’ of your writing.

 

[Vertigo]

Now that is a neat little idea!

 

[The Judge]

I've heard that one before, though for me it isn't as helpful as reading out loud. But when I count the words for my Challenge entries I always count backwards, as it makes me read the words as words, not as part of a sentence, and reduces the risk of mis-counting.

 

[Brian G Turner]

The Editors Blog (http://theeditorsblog.net/) linked to is excellent - spent a long time this afternoon reading through, and even printed out a couple of the pieces. Can't remember the last time I found a site that interesting!

 

[Vertigo]

To be honest I thought that might be what would interest Chrons writers most. But as it was NA's post that interested me most (at this stage) I so titled this thread. If that makes any sense!

 

[J-Sun]

Ah I hadn't realised it was just a pull down from his normal blog. Thanks J-Sun!

Welcome!

To be honest I thought that might be what would interest Chrons writers most. But as it was NA's post that interested me most (at this stage) I so titled this thread. If that makes any sense!

Yeah, the Asher part was what caught my eye (reading Brass Man now) so good thread advertising.