October 19th, 2009 / 7:34 pm
Snippets
Snippets
Ryan Call—
Have you ever written a story/poem/text that you thought you’d have to trash, but then ‘saved’ it somehow? If so, how?
Really good videos.
I turned a 50k word novel into an >1k word short story. (Happy with the short story.)
Really good videos.
I turned a 50k word novel into an >1k word short story. (Happy with the short story.)
i turned my parents into short stories
i turned my parents into short stories
This is the Schutt thing, right: find the sentence in the middle of the story that works, and begin again from there.
Also: yes.
This is the Schutt thing, right: find the sentence in the middle of the story that works, and begin again from there.
Also: yes.
but how do you know for sure when a piece is not working?
but how do you know for sure when a piece is not working?
one sign: when you look away in disgust
one sign: when you look away in disgust
More than once I’ve taken what I thought was a dumpy little piece and revised it toward the themed issue of a lit mag. Doing so forced a radical revision. It gave new energy to the piece (or to my perception of the potentiality of that piece, a piece that had been languishing, overworked into unexcitement).
Anybody else done this?
More than once I’ve taken what I thought was a dumpy little piece and revised it toward the themed issue of a lit mag. Doing so forced a radical revision. It gave new energy to the piece (or to my perception of the potentiality of that piece, a piece that had been languishing, overworked into unexcitement).
Anybody else done this?
i think maybe it is the schutt thing. im scrapping a big portion of a story that i thought was finished but ive gone back to the one place where i thought i could restart it, where it was most interesting to me, the sentences i mean. im still frustrated though.
i think maybe it is the schutt thing. im scrapping a big portion of a story that i thought was finished but ive gone back to the one place where i thought i could restart it, where it was most interesting to me, the sentences i mean. im still frustrated though.
did the place take it?
did the place take it?
Yeah, Willows Wept Review. I revised the piece toward “summer”.
I have one other success with revising toward a theme. But both stand on a pile of many many failures.
If there’s a danger in doing this, maybe it’s that it prevents you from letting go of a piece that you should really let go of.
Yeah, Willows Wept Review. I revised the piece toward “summer”.
I have one other success with revising toward a theme. But both stand on a pile of many many failures.
If there’s a danger in doing this, maybe it’s that it prevents you from letting go of a piece that you should really let go of.
I’ve take various peices and run them through things like this:
http://www.eskimo.com/~rstarr/poormfa/travesty.html
That’s how my piece in Otoliths was born – an abomination.
I just had a long story taken that I’d completely given up on because I couldn’t write an ending that wasn’t terrible. Then I went back to it six months after the first drafts were written and restructured/rewrote it completely, ending up with an 8000 word draft including a new version of the still terrible ending. I got some feedback on that draft which basically confirmed that I had written as bad of an ending as I thought, so I rewrote it again. Then I cut 2000 words. Ten months after the first bad version, it’s been taken by one of my favorite magazines. Still, if you’d asked me two months ago, I would have told you that story was my worst failure from the last 18 months or so.
I just had a long story taken that I’d completely given up on because I couldn’t write an ending that wasn’t terrible. Then I went back to it six months after the first drafts were written and restructured/rewrote it completely, ending up with an 8000 word draft including a new version of the still terrible ending. I got some feedback on that draft which basically confirmed that I had written as bad of an ending as I thought, so I rewrote it again. Then I cut 2000 words. Ten months after the first bad version, it’s been taken by one of my favorite magazines. Still, if you’d asked me two months ago, I would have told you that story was my worst failure from the last 18 months or so.
what’d you do with the ending?
what’d you do with the ending?
This happens to me quite often. I set the story aside for up to years at a time, then revisit them and often times, that distance has helped me come up with a way to fix what was broken.
Or I revisit it. Argh.
This happens to me quite often. I set the story aside for up to years at a time, then revisit them and often times, that distance has helped me come up with a way to fix what was broken.
Or I revisit it. Argh.
How can you even look at work older than two years without laughing/vomiting/convulsing/making a face? I need to become much better at this rescue of old work. I have folders of garbage. To develop a biofuel plant of my own would be quite an industry. Then again, I’d prefer just to write something new.
How can you even look at work older than two years without laughing/vomiting/convulsing/making a face? I need to become much better at this rescue of old work. I have folders of garbage. To develop a biofuel plant of my own would be quite an industry. Then again, I’d prefer just to write something new.
@ ben – hilarious, and i agree 100%
@ matt – way to stick with it, that’s painful, but glad it worked out
@ roxane/corey – exactly, set it aside, you may come back to it with new experiences, a missing part to the puzzle, or the distance and vision to see what DID work, and the courage to cut what didn’t
i’ve discovered old stories that i put aside months, years ago, and re-read them and thought “Well, this doesn’t TOTALLY suck” – and proceeded to cut that weak parts – sometimes you’ll find new inspiration, or will take it in a new direction – maybe previously it ended with tragedy but now it ends with hope
i’ve killed some stories for sure, but usually i’ll save even the crummy bits and later, find something in them, even just one line, to build upon again in the future
@ ben – hilarious, and i agree 100%
@ matt – way to stick with it, that’s painful, but glad it worked out
@ roxane/corey – exactly, set it aside, you may come back to it with new experiences, a missing part to the puzzle, or the distance and vision to see what DID work, and the courage to cut what didn’t
i’ve discovered old stories that i put aside months, years ago, and re-read them and thought “Well, this doesn’t TOTALLY suck” – and proceeded to cut that weak parts – sometimes you’ll find new inspiration, or will take it in a new direction – maybe previously it ended with tragedy but now it ends with hope
i’ve killed some stories for sure, but usually i’ll save even the crummy bits and later, find something in them, even just one line, to build upon again in the future
Does anyone ever completely, willfully dump a work– as in, delete, burn, never come back to ever?
I feel like most writers keep most of their work in hopes that (as many have said in this thread) it contains, upon review, one good kernel, a tiny spark worth rekindling. Computer storage definitely makes this easier. (Reflexive, even.)
I feel this way but I have no evidence.
To say it the other way: for most writers, is “trashing” a work simply storing it until it is 100% forgotten?
Does anyone ever completely, willfully dump a work– as in, delete, burn, never come back to ever?
I feel like most writers keep most of their work in hopes that (as many have said in this thread) it contains, upon review, one good kernel, a tiny spark worth rekindling. Computer storage definitely makes this easier. (Reflexive, even.)
I feel this way but I have no evidence.
To say it the other way: for most writers, is “trashing” a work simply storing it until it is 100% forgotten?
I wrote a bad poem yesterday and used it as a napkin today while eating nachos.
I wrote a bad poem yesterday and used it as a napkin today while eating nachos.
I’ve totally done that. I made what was kind of a lamely told historical piece into a “how-to”–challenging, but it made my crappy story a really good one. It didn’t get into the publication, but I did save it.
I’ve totally done that. I made what was kind of a lamely told historical piece into a “how-to”–challenging, but it made my crappy story a really good one. It didn’t get into the publication, but I did save it.
Oh, it was just really literal, and not really working because of it. It was also, perhaps, a little too action-y, after a very quiet story. So I just made it more unreal, in keeping with the rest of the piece, and calmed the last two down a bit.
Last two scenes, that is.
Oh, it was just really literal, and not really working because of it. It was also, perhaps, a little too action-y, after a very quiet story. So I just made it more unreal, in keeping with the rest of the piece, and calmed the last two down a bit.
Last two scenes, that is.
I don’t think I’ve deleted anything I’ve written in years. I keep pretty organized files, and I’ve got at least the last six years of my writing life–certainly from before I was even publishing–all still on my hard drive. I don’t keep it to go back and work on it again though. They’re stories written by a completely different person, at least as far as writing goes. (Also, as I’m sure goes without saying, most of its pretty bad.)
I don’t think I’ve deleted anything I’ve written in years. I keep pretty organized files, and I’ve got at least the last six years of my writing life–certainly from before I was even publishing–all still on my hard drive. I don’t keep it to go back and work on it again though. They’re stories written by a completely different person, at least as far as writing goes. (Also, as I’m sure goes without saying, most of its pretty bad.)