Read Read Read Write Write Write Rewrite Rewrite Rewrite

I haven't done much writing, or rewriting lately, but I did read a lot. I have some thoughts about my reading.

I took the title of this post from some very common advice to writers. I picked it up in Pierre Berton's book "The Joy of Writing".

What Kind of Reading?

I don't think anyone would argue about the need for a writer to read a lot. What I wonder is, what kind of reading? When I started to make movies, I mostly watched movies for enjoyment, but also began to watch to study the movie. I'd make notes about various aspects of the movies to gain a better understanding of how to make movies.

I haven't done the same with reading though, it is still all for enjoyment. I suspect that I should try to analyze some of the material I read, as I did with movies. I have done a little of that. I remember back in high school I spent some time working through a Doc Savage book to try to suss out how it was done. I didn't succeed. All it did was distract me from the stuff I should have done for English class.

I do read some books about writing , like "The Joy of Writing", and I think that helps. However, I think that you can learn from other kinds of books.

I am unsure if reading for pleasure helps. Maybe, as you read, your subconscious picks up on the mechanics of the writing, which you can draw on later. I have my doubts if that is very effective. It would be nice if it does. I wonder if anyone has studied this.

What Have I Read?

I used to read quite a few books. Over the years I drifted from science fiction to mysteries to non-fiction. Over the last year I've noticed that more and more of what I read is eBooks on my eReader, or on-line: things like news articles and blogs.

I visit some U.S. news and opinion pages on a regular basis: Paul Krugman, Salon, and Slate. I'd like to find similar sites in Canada because I find myself thinking too much about U.S. economics and politics, which is really not my major concern. I pick up articles here and there from the people I follow on Twitter or FaceBook.

Just recently I discovered Jason Colavito's blog: http://www.jasoncolavito.com/. His main focus is on debunking the ancient astronaut theory. He writes a lot about how H. P. Lovecraft's stories have influenced AA theory. He seems to do a new post almost every day. I wish I could be as prolific; and successful, he gets more comments than I get views.

Another recent discovery was Space Archaeology, http://spacearchaeology.org/. Unfortunately the last post was back in November 2012. That said, I did find some worthwhile posts. One of these, 10 Space Archaeology Stories You Must Read (http://spacearchaeology.org/?p=219) got me to read "The Red One" by Jack London, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Red_One. It is reminiscent of some of Lovecraft's Yog-Sothothery stories, but was written a decade before "The Call of Cthulhu".

I do worry that the time I spend reading these blogs are a diversion from what I really want to do. Blogs can be addictive. On the other hand, I think that anything that stimulates thought is a positive thing.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog

First Draft of Bright Freedom Done

I finished the conversion of my script Bright Freedom into a story this week. It came in at a little over 17,500 words, which is supposed to be the boundary between a novelette and a novella. It runs 47 pages.

I gave it a quick scan and it was clear that I have a lot more work to do on it. I plan to leave it for a while, and then start a rewrite. I expect I’ll need to do quite a few rewrites.

I think I do have a problem with some of my writing, where I have essentially the same thing happens over and over. I managed to cut out some of that in this story as I rewrote it, but I still need to do some more.

Another mistake I made with this story is that the subplots are too big and left the main story line somewhat thin. I did some analysis of the story and the main story makes up about 70 per cent of the total words, while one subplot is 25 percent and the other about 5 per cent. That isn’t as bad as I thought. The main plot is actually two stories that are so intertwined that I really can’t separate them. I think that is why I felt like my subplots took up too much space. I plan to build up the main plot line more and cut some stuff out of the subplots.

In several scenes, I have the characters talk to each other on the phone. In some cases, I think this makes sense. In others, I think I should change the scene into a face to face meeting.

I noticed that scenes that I thought about quite a bit read much better. The scenes where I didn’t, come across as pretty limp. When I rewrite I think I should just do one scene at a time, and reread it at least a day before to get my mind focussed on it.

Another issue is that I’ve put in descriptions of what the character does while they talk or pause. I did that to break up the dialog, and avoid “he said” and “she said” descriptions. All too often, I have their gestures repeat. I think a lot of that has to come out. I also want to come up with a wider range of gestures, expressions, and actions. I want them to reveal what the characters are thinking, and what they are feeling.

Pierre Berton said that you should read something good before you start to write. I’ve been reading about H. P. Lovecraft, which is a very different kind of material from what I’m trying to do. I need to read a story more like what I’m writing. I can’t really think of any. It’s a little hard to describe what the story is, so it is hard to ask people for suggestions.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog

Bright Freedom Update 2012 July 22

I started to work on my revised Sharkbiter video, but then I decided to concentrate on Bright Freedom instead. The project started as a film script a couple years ago, so I am converting the script into a novella. I got another 5,600 words done. One more session and I am done the first draft. I hope.

It will need a lot more work before I have something I feel I can publish. I do need to do some more background research. It should be easier to identify what I need to find out if I have a draft of the story.

I just read The Joy of Writing by Pierre Berton. Although it is mostly about writing non-fiction, it got me to think differently about this story.

Berton’s rule number 16 is to always describe the people. My characters are fictional, but, in the past, I have sought out images that I can use to visualize them. I picked someone to be Bright Freedom. I won’t say who I picked, but she just jumped into my mind as soon as I started to ponder who I could use. I haven’t given as much thought to the other characters as I wrote, so it is harder to visualize them.

I think I have too many characters and maybe too many subplots. I eliminated one character so far. She only had one scene and was mentioned a couple of times in other scenes, so it wasn’t hard to cut her out. I did lose a scene I liked though.

I have several characters that only play a small part, so I think it may make sense to merge them into other characters. I think I’ll need to build up some of the characters so they contribute more to the story.

I have five plot lines now and thought I might add another. In a previous, failed, script I ran into a problem where I added so many side stories, that people who read the outline thought one of the subplots was the main plot. As an exercise, I thought that I might try to split off all of the subplots into separate stories. That should help me focus on the core story. I plan to reintegrate the subplots later.

The core of the story is composed of two of the plot lines and can’t be separated because they are so intertwined with each other. One of the subplots is almost nonexistent now, but I think I can integrate it into the main story line. The other subplots are really to show the internal conflict that Bright faces because what she does and says in those stories contrasts with what she does and says in the main story.

After I have this first draft done, I will leave it for a while. I already have ideas for additional scenes. There are structural changes I’d like to make. I can see that I’ll need at least one more draft to take care of those additions. Then I want to do a draft where I flesh out the story with descriptive detail. I’ll likely need to do another draft to clean up the wording.

I want to get some input from people when I reach that point. In particular, since the main character is a woman, I want to see how women feel about what I’ve done. If you're a woman and would like to help, please let me know.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog