The Writing Life
Notes on writing, reading, publishing, and life
The four stages of writing fiction. . . each a separate challenge
- You have an idea. . . and you write it down quickly before you forget it. It may only be a scrap of paper, but it has a hold on you that won’t go away. It says: Write me. Write about this.
- You fill the required number of pages with words. Any words will do, but you begin, and you keep going. Whether your idea takes one page or 400 to get down on paper, this is your most basic task. It’s a very challenging one.
- Now you rewrite until you have the right words. . . the ones that most clearly tell your story, describe your setting and events, reveal your characters and their conflicts, and reach some resolution. This can take many tries . . . it’s like plenishing a flat circle of silver, raising it tap by tap, until it becomes a round bowl.
- Finally, you go through it all again until you’ve found that what you’ve written captures your idea. But, in the process, it has become more than words. More than something to read that’s passes the time. It breathes, it sighs, it laughs, it bleeds and recovers, and brings the reader something new and meaningful. You may find evidence of this happening at any point in the process, but don’t give up until you do.