tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post7393726384451847216..comments2024-03-26T23:41:10.319+00:00Comments on Authors Electric: Getting it Right by Ann EvansKatherine Robertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17196712319655603442noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-85166768550529814912012-05-15T08:07:20.134+01:002012-05-15T08:07:20.134+01:00If I started to list my mistakes, past and present...If I started to list my mistakes, past and present, I'd never stop.<br /><br />Here's something by a writer and critic I admire, M. John Harrison:<br /><br />'First you need to make your technique unconscious, so you can do it without thinking about it. Then you choose to make it conscious again, and that gets you on the learning curve. Your goal is to make fiction seem as if no effort has gone into writing it; also that no effort is required by the reader.'<br /><br />I'm not sure that I agree with him entirely about goal, but he does emphasise that fiction should only <i>seem</i> effortless, both to writer and reader. In fact, he doesn't much hold with adults reading only for escape.<br /><br />I feel that many, many writers disappoint - even fail - because they reach the stage of unconscious technique and never move beyond it.Leehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13770069472552779217noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-58818003038761645672012-05-13T19:57:09.372+01:002012-05-13T19:57:09.372+01:00Thank you all for your comments and the nice remar...Thank you all for your comments and the nice remark about my new book cover. I do agree that early work can seem more full of energy - as you say Catherine, probably because pleasing an editor was the last thing on our minds at the time. But you can certainly pick out the faults after a break from it, although 30 years is probably long enough!Ann Evanshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09310566139408774783noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-16097048331194081852012-05-13T19:02:54.926+01:002012-05-13T19:02:54.926+01:00Oh, how right you are!Oh, how right you are!Catherine Czerkawskahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14554969254207924049noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-1989024797794597222012-05-13T17:51:02.156+01:002012-05-13T17:51:02.156+01:00I confess to some errant punctuation (I've tak...I confess to some errant punctuation (I've taken down an ebook that wasn't properly updated from these errors of 15 years ago) I must have been off school the year we did punctuation and speech marks. But I can FIX it now because I lived and learned. It was never an issue in screenwriting/play formats but with novels... had to learn. Then forgot I hadn't learned. Like everything though, there are two sides. Along with Catherine, I don't dismiss my earlier work, because I still believe in a lot of it. What I am doing though is converting a lot of stories told in one medium to another medium. I always wanted to write novels, but I needed to earn a living and screenwriting was the way not to starve. Not glamorous and NOT ultimately satisfying though. Was my early mistake trying to earn a living from writing in the first place? Now I've stopped trying to earn a living (from anything) life has become much easier and creativity much more pleasurable. Nothing used to bum me out more than TV production company accepting something (it was even worse than being rejected because I knew that what came next was my creative ideas being munched, mangled and generally kicked to death so that even if they did make the screen I'd not want to own up to them!) Not a way to earn a living.CallyPhillipshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15481379296340077102noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-54900994870965816072012-05-13T16:49:40.882+01:002012-05-13T16:49:40.882+01:00It's interesting - I have found awful stuff I ...It's interesting - I have found awful stuff I wrote years ago. But then, I have found things that I reckon are infinitely better than the stuff I'm writing now, and that's perhaps because back then I was writing from the heart, without anyone telling me that I couldn't do this, that, or something else. I'll probably republish some of it in due course. I'll revise some of it in the light of experience. But I haven't, in all honesty, found that my writing career is a progression. Some of my earlier work is quite definitely better - more full of energy and originality - than later work. And that is perhaps why I'm so very suspicious of editors!Catherine Czerkawskahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14554969254207924049noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-85909147700077853062012-05-13T13:03:39.554+01:002012-05-13T13:03:39.554+01:00Very brave of you to reread old work! I don't ...Very brave of you to reread old work! I don't know why, but I still cringe when I look at mine. Great idea to distil it into a book - and that's a great cover.Roz Morris aka @Roz_Morris . Blog: Nail Your Novelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10088813423467048081noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-65226089484439665452012-05-13T11:42:18.594+01:002012-05-13T11:42:18.594+01:00It's weird reading stuff you wrote years ago, ...It's weird reading stuff you wrote years ago, isn't it? I get enough of a shock re-reading the rubbish I did last year.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com