I sometimes wonder what I used to think before I started writing years ago, and it marries to other questions about how different I would be as a writer had I gone through all the regimens of writing and english courses to structure me into some sort of story writer. It's amidst these thoughts that I wonder what I'd have thought about the most recent writing epiphany.
Admittedly it's not so much an epiphany of my life, more the expected epiphany for every book/story. Even though I worked on the outline, researched, and planned for (in this case several years of pondering), when I went into writing Cherry Blossoms, I didn't know what it would end up like. I often wonder if pre-writer me (or for that matter non-writers or hopeful writers) would understand that a book needs time to find its voice.
I am now knee-deep in the next to last chapter for Cherry Blossoms. Though it is only the first draft (and the laundry list of changes and additions is growing daily), it's only now with the ending redesigned that I know the nature of the story I want to tell. It's times like this I like to sit back and luxuriate in because it sort of releases a tension that had been building up since page one.
In Purple Sun, it took until I'd finished writing the first part of the intended story to realize I was writing two books at one time. Separating them created a far better flavor in the reading experience and created effectively two worlds/stories separate and conjoined. Blood Talon it took until nearly the end as well to feel like I knew how to actually write the story I intended.
It's kinda odd in a way. If you were to read just the first draft, the tone keeps suddenly changing until it reaches the feeling that you're reading a completely different story. I just have to keep in mind finishing the first draft. I have the urge already to go and start the second draft already.
David Barentine
www.wotps.com
No comments:
Post a Comment