A year sounds about right to me for a novel. When I finally start writing everything flows and unfolds. I may during the year keep a few notes - but literally less than a thousand words. I also incubate short stories - or at least I think I do. They errupt in threes or fours and then stop. I seem to take my life-experience and brew it for a long time before it turns to prose. The exception would be when I am writing a play. I will usually redraft prose two to three times, but I write up to thirty versions of a play - and yet I cannot start until I know what the story is all about. Writing a play is not disimilar to attempting to turn myself inside out. I am remarkably happy when it is over, but what a process.Whereas writing prose is, for the greater part, a joy.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2004-11-16 04:29 pm (UTC)I seem to take my life-experience and brew it for a long time before it turns to prose.
The exception would be when I am writing a play. I will usually redraft prose two to three times, but I write up to thirty versions of a play - and yet I cannot start until I know what the story is all about.
Writing a play is not disimilar to attempting to turn myself inside out. I am remarkably happy when it is over, but what a process.Whereas writing prose is, for the greater part, a joy.