"The man who sticks to his plan will become what he used to want to be."

[larryhammer]

There's been a lot of heat-and-light going around lately on How To Write -- and by "lately" I mean "the past two millennia" -- and not wanting to be left out, for the benefit of writers everywhere, here is my own dogmatic writing advice manifesto based on personal experience. Note that of course this only applies if it works for you, however anyone who fails to follow it is clearly All Wrong and not a Real Writer^TM:

1. "Good enough" isn't.

This is my final pronouncement on the matter for the next decade. Now if you'll pardon me, I'll be over here working on revisions for a while. A long while.

---L.

Comments

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

One person's "good enough" is likely to be much better than another's.

[stillnotbored.livejournal.com]

::Takes notes. The universe is explained...as is why she's a bit of compulsive overachiever.::

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Sigh...I've already learned that one. See the scars? (They don't give out t-shirts.)

*back to ripping and tearing*

[aberwyn.livejournal.com]

Indeed. REvision is the soul of writing. First or even second draft is only the dead flesh.

What do you think of Browning, btw? If you've already posted on this, my apologies -- but I missed it.

revisions for a long while

[(Anonymous)]

Well. You do need to work on revisions, of course. But even that comes to an end. And we hope it's sooner rather than later. Because we want to READ IT!

Darcy

Re: revisions for a long while

[larryhammer]

I'm a couple chapters from the end, actually. ALMOST there.

---L.

[larryhammer]

Hey, you have a good excuse for missing 'em. The Ring and the Book is a reread, actually, and I'm liking it even better than before, especially after wading through far too much later, and not as good, Browning. I also recently reread (insofar as I did) the Balaustion poems.

---L.