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A bit more on literature and writing-
I have a couple of remarkable experiences to report. First, a couple of weeks ago, my sister and her colleague got to meet Cynthia Leitich Smith in a bookstore in Westchester. Deirdrej said it was great! I really wish I could have gone, too (I had to work), because what Cynthia said about her writing process was really fascinating.
She said that, when she began working on a book, she would just write a first draft, very quickly. Then she would throw out that entire draft and start over. When Deirdrej told me that, I was astonished. How could anyone ever have the nerve to do that - to spend time and effort on a story, and then just discard it? I still don't think I could do that as a regular practice, but maybe I should!
Because, I remarked to my sister, that is exactly what I've done with my novel, as well as with the middle grade novel I'm working on now. In both cases, I wrote drafts or versions of the story some years earlier. And in both cases, when I began to rewrite, I never even looked at those earlier drafts. In other words, without planning to or thinking it out, I actually have used Ms. Smith's technique as a regular practice. And I have no doubt at all that it's made the stories stronger.
There are, I'd guess, two things you'd gain by working the way Cynthia Leitich Smith does. First, you'd give yourself permission to be really free in your first draft and just have fun with it. Then, when you came to rewrite, you would already know your story. You would - almost unconsciously - have planned the characters and plot, and you would have that knowledge to guide you. Anything that was important or good in the first, discarded draft, would surely make its way into the second.
At least, I've found that to be the case. But I still don't know if I would have the nerve to do this regularly - to write fast, sloppy first drafts, throw them out, and start again. Because I'm a slow writer, and rewrite as I go. It's the "sloppy first draft" part of this equation that throws me a bit. On the other hand, I don't outline a lot, and this is a very organic way of outlining, isn't it?
The second stunning thing was KIng Lear at Great Barrington. Our younger sister treated us to the tickets; it was a delayed simulcast of the production from London starring Derek Jacobi. Wow! Lear is very hard to take; the physical and psychic violence is intense, but what a production! The cast was uniformly excellent: I was actually more impressed by Gloucester, Edgar, Cordelia and the Fool than I was by Lear. And the staging and costumes were wonderful in their simplicity and elegance. It was a lovely drive, too - through snow-covered woods and fields and over mountains. The road from my parents' place to Great Barrington has scenery as beautiful as I've seen anywhere. Small-scale and not enormously dramatic, but beautiful, all the same.
Here's an autumn pic of some of said scenery, though it's not the view I find so stunning:
She said that, when she began working on a book, she would just write a first draft, very quickly. Then she would throw out that entire draft and start over. When Deirdrej told me that, I was astonished. How could anyone ever have the nerve to do that - to spend time and effort on a story, and then just discard it? I still don't think I could do that as a regular practice, but maybe I should!
Because, I remarked to my sister, that is exactly what I've done with my novel, as well as with the middle grade novel I'm working on now. In both cases, I wrote drafts or versions of the story some years earlier. And in both cases, when I began to rewrite, I never even looked at those earlier drafts. In other words, without planning to or thinking it out, I actually have used Ms. Smith's technique as a regular practice. And I have no doubt at all that it's made the stories stronger.
There are, I'd guess, two things you'd gain by working the way Cynthia Leitich Smith does. First, you'd give yourself permission to be really free in your first draft and just have fun with it. Then, when you came to rewrite, you would already know your story. You would - almost unconsciously - have planned the characters and plot, and you would have that knowledge to guide you. Anything that was important or good in the first, discarded draft, would surely make its way into the second.
At least, I've found that to be the case. But I still don't know if I would have the nerve to do this regularly - to write fast, sloppy first drafts, throw them out, and start again. Because I'm a slow writer, and rewrite as I go. It's the "sloppy first draft" part of this equation that throws me a bit. On the other hand, I don't outline a lot, and this is a very organic way of outlining, isn't it?
The second stunning thing was KIng Lear at Great Barrington. Our younger sister treated us to the tickets; it was a delayed simulcast of the production from London starring Derek Jacobi. Wow! Lear is very hard to take; the physical and psychic violence is intense, but what a production! The cast was uniformly excellent: I was actually more impressed by Gloucester, Edgar, Cordelia and the Fool than I was by Lear. And the staging and costumes were wonderful in their simplicity and elegance. It was a lovely drive, too - through snow-covered woods and fields and over mountains. The road from my parents' place to Great Barrington has scenery as beautiful as I've seen anywhere. Small-scale and not enormously dramatic, but beautiful, all the same.
Here's an autumn pic of some of said scenery, though it's not the view I find so stunning: