I do a lot of on-the-fly revision as I write. The language is important; if I can't at least sketch what I want it to do, I spend some time with it. The "keep writing don't stop don't change anything until the draft is done" model drives me nuts, and I've learned to ignore it. Sometimes, as I write, I discover something will need to be retroactively added or deleted or fixed, so I include [comments in brackets on what to do] and move on. Or go back and add it, depending on my mood.
After a draft is done, I have two revision modes. The first is minor--tweaks, adding/removing scenes, deleting words (each time I go through a draft I remove more words!), etc. The second is complete rewrite from scratch restructure toss almost everything out is this even the same story mode. The first I'm okay with. But going into the second mode drives me nuts, because I feel like I'm tossing out so much. What I need to find is a happy medium. For short stories it's not so bad, but novels? Urgh.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2004-08-27 12:10 pm (UTC)After a draft is done, I have two revision modes. The first is minor--tweaks, adding/removing scenes, deleting words (each time I go through a draft I remove more words!), etc. The second is complete rewrite from scratch restructure toss almost everything out is this even the same story mode. The first I'm okay with. But going into the second mode drives me nuts, because I feel like I'm tossing out so much. What I need to find is a happy medium. For short stories it's not so bad, but novels? Urgh.