The Place For My Writers Notes

Original Posting 20 August 2009

Writers' Digest, October 2004, pages 26 to 33, has a collection of short "nuggets of wisdom" related to getting published. Maria Schneider is the author of the compilation. Take a deep breath, and here we go:

"Writers love words -- it's one of the greatest of our occupational hazards. Consequently, when a first draft comes rushing out of us, it invariably contains too many of them. It's your job to go through the manuscript and identify the bones that require scoping. To do this, monitor your own response to the rhythms of your sentences and paragraphs. You'll know when the sentence is too long if, by the end of it, you feel as you would listening to someone share an anecdote that drags on too long." I.J. Schechter

It's kind of fun to see how these various people think about writing and revision. Schechter seems to see the first draft as an outpouring, flooding the page with words. Then revision is paring it down, getting rid of the extra junk around the edges so that you can see what the core is. And the suggestion about paying attention to your own response to your own rhythms. Do you read your work out loud? Can you hear the words?

I do wonder if there is a difference between the reader who listens to the words, the reader who sees the scenes, and perhaps the reader who is there? I mean, if we're paying too much attention to the words, to the singing beauty of the writing, are we missing the story? Or...

Anyway -- beware of the flood of words, drenching your story in muddy swirls. Clean it up!