A terrific interview with Megan on Memphis Public Radio can be found here.Question 2.
What is the average length of time it takes you to finish a polished story?
P.A. I would say a month. I might also be working on another story and go back and forth, but probably a month. I like rewriting more than writing and I think that slows me down.
Michael Bracken: Actual writing time? From a few hours up to about 10 hours, Rarely more. Rarely less. However, years may pass between the time I make notes for a story I'd like to write and when I actually write it.
Question 3
Do you outline your stories?
Michael almost never outlines and if he does, it's just a sketch.
I never do either. Even at my attempts at a novel, I just kept track of the characters birth dates on a chart. None of the plot.
How about the rest of you?
18 comments:
I like rewriting more than writing too so it takes me a long time. I occassionally make notes on a longer project I'm working on but never really do an outline.
Depends on the story length. Generally a short piece of flash fiction (1,000 words) will be done in a couple of hours. I'll generally leave it then for a day and then edit. That could take 5 mins to an hour depending on how clean it is. I'll probably then wait a couple of days and re-read again before putting it to bed.
I rarely make notes, but for the last full length piece I wrote I stopped after two chapters and worked out the backstory - why all the characters are caught up the madness unfolding and why it is happening - then continued. I didn't plan forward, I just needed to know what went on prior to the novel starting. I much prefer writing to rewriting. I like the surprise in the unfolding; of finding out what happened. When rewriting that surprise has gone and I already know how the story unfolds. As a result, I prefer to try and keep rewriting to edits and tweaks rather than redrafting.
Me, too, Charles. I think we are odd in that though. Most people seem to dread rewriting whereas that's when I find out what my story is about.
Novels I outline down to the scene level, though I often decide how the scene will go as I'm writing it. What I know in advance is what has to be accomplished.
Shorts I can hold in my head., so I don't formally outline them, but I know what's going to happen before I sit down to write.
I've tried to write more by the seat of my pants, but the writing itself it dry, and the stories are poorly formed. I'm a better described of events than I am a maker-upper of them (two different sides of my brain, maybe) so knowing what needs to happen frees me to write it up more creatively.
Interesting post. I'm surprised you don't outline Patti as your plots are always so tight.
My process is never consistent. Sometimes flash pieces will take me a couple of months, other times a couple of hours. I almost always outline, but it's usually just a sketch, sequence of events with some idea of the ending.
I always make notes at the end of a story in red. Lets me keep track of what the story is missing, what isn't working, etc.
No sketching. Rewriting is the hardest part, to have the guts to slash and burn. It's always hard to let even the good parts go.
I love to rewrite. It's the first draft I find challenging.
I second Kieran. Slash and burn is always tricky. Much easier to do for academic stuff than fiction.
Yes, my husband just excised 2000 words from an article on Philip Roth and said it was better for it.
I got a paper accepted on Friday as long as I cut it down 1500 words. It is now 3500 and likewise better for it. It only took an hour to do. Once I got the scapel out it was fun wielding it.
It is fun and a good lesson that we use too many words to say what we do. Just excising words like "just" and "that" can cut a lot out.
Or at least current writing styles tell us this. Writing styles of many academics speak to this. Stiff and too much subjunctive.
2. My best stories take years to attain their final form. In the meantime I'll send a story out, get a rejection months later, look the story over, think, "No wonder they didn't like it," and do more surgery on it.
On rewriting I'm with Gore Vidal: "I have nothing to say, but a great deal to add."
3. I'm incapable of outlining.
That's another issue, Al. Do you send stories out too quickly--which I always do.
I often think they're ready and discover that they aren't. Editors are good at pointing this out.
Rewriting is usually necessary, and given the time it takes me to finish a story or an article, usually gets done (if I'm given a deadline, then things get a bit less worked-over). My PROGRESSIVE article was under deadline and took about three hours to write...my Joyce Carol Oates survey article for SUPERNATURAL FICTION WRITERS was likewise and took about ten hours.
Interesting point-is non-fiction writing quicker or slower?
I find non-fiction harder to write than fiction for two reasons. There's substantially more research time involved and there's a sincere desire to present the facts in a logical, informative, and readable way. Unlike fiction, I'm not allowed to alter the facts to fit the telling; I have to alter the telling to fit the facts. therefore, I wind up producing multiple drafts of my non-fiction.
Of course, there's a middle ground. Personal essays, a form of non-fiction, sometimes allow a bit of facts-be-damned creativity.
Dollar short and a day late, but here are 2 cents anyway. I'm working on a nonfiction book, one chapter at a time and posting super-condensed versions of them on my blog. I'm often surprised by how much better something reads after cutting it down by two-thirds. Less is more.
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