Do you find that there's any difference in the way you approach the novels themselves now, as opposed to the way you approached your older ones?
I know that my overall process has shifted, like a type of writerly continental drift, in the years since I finished the first draft of the first novel I managed to complete, but that in many ways the core of it is the same. I don't work from an outline because it kills the book (for me) or stops it dead for a month or two at a time. I don't even structure the chapters that way; the most I'll do is jot a single line or two about what I -think- will happen/should happen next.
But this one foot in front of the other didn't used to be so tightly focused as it is now -- and I'm not certain if it's because I've grown -less- confident as I've grown older, rather than more <wry g>. When I was younger, I think I was less aware of the flaws and infelicities in my own work, and while I think I've improved with time, I'm still aware of them.
aireon asked if rereading the books I started work on 10 years ago was enjoyable.
And it wasn't; I could see the flaws. I could see almost only the flaws -- so it was like reading galleys/page proofs in which there are no corrections allowed. And I'm wondering if this experience -- you know, 8 books of it -- hasn't also made me feel much more aware of the balls that can be dropped. And how frequently.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2004-07-08 02:43 pm (UTC)I know that my overall process has shifted, like a type of writerly continental drift, in the years since I finished the first draft of the first novel I managed to complete, but that in many ways the core of it is the same. I don't work from an outline because it kills the book (for me) or stops it dead for a month or two at a time. I don't even structure the chapters that way; the most I'll do is jot a single line or two about what I -think- will happen/should happen next.
But this one foot in front of the other didn't used to be so tightly focused as it is now -- and I'm not certain if it's because I've grown -less- confident as I've grown older, rather than more <wry g>. When I was younger, I think I was less aware of the flaws and infelicities in my own work, and while I think I've improved with time, I'm still aware of them.
And it wasn't; I could see the flaws. I could see almost only the flaws -- so it was like reading galleys/page proofs in which there are no corrections allowed. And I'm wondering if this experience -- you know, 8 books of it -- hasn't also made me feel much more aware of the balls that can be dropped. And how frequently.