Friday, November 12, 2010

Surgery and the rules of Vonnegut

I'm not blogging much these days, largely because I've been playing surgeon, and, like most surgeons, I have found it better to focus my attention on one thing and do it well, rather than do lots of things poorly.

After taking a close look at my MG fantasy, I decided the first half was... how to put this delicately... in need of some first aid. I started bandaging it, but after too many bandages, I realized it needed a full-on operation. So I donned my surgical gloves and rewrote most of the first 20K words over the past 10 days. It's now out of intensive care but will be going in for check-ups (i.e., revisions) over the coming weeks.

Speaking of revisions, Elana Johnson has a great post about how her revision process works. You probably already check her blog on a daily basis, but in case you don't (or missed it), go check it out.

What, you ask, does this have to do with Vonnegut? Nothing really, except that my husband found Kurt Vonnegut's Tips for Writing Fiction. And since I'm mired in that process and found it helpful (#6... gotta work on #6!), I thought you might like it, too.

How is your WIP coming?

7 comments:

  1. Good luck with your surgery! Loved the analogy!

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  2. I've seen Vonnegut's rules before, and I love #7. #6 is a toughie, but also true I think.

    Good luck with your editing. I'm sure your WIP will be whipped (pun intended) into shape soon.

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  3. Oh, you're so funny. I loved the analogy, too.

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  4. I'm so with you on the surgery. Want to come over and operate on my wip too??? :P

    Rach

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  5. I love your description of your editing process being like an operation. Yes it can feel like that, amputations the lot! :O)

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  6. LOL; too cool. It does feel like surgery, huh?

    Thanks for the Kurt Vonnegut tips. And good luck with your processes; sounds like you are clipping right along.

    My WIP is going slow. But that works well for me. Less editing/revising later - I hope.

    Have a good weekend.

    ........dhole

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  7. Thanks, everyone!

    Rach: surgery is exhausting; I'm not up for more than one major surgery at the moment. :)

    Donna: I'm not out of the woods yet. Still some bits to work on at the end, and then I need to sit down with a printed copy and go over it, word by word. Your method sounds better, quite frankly. :)

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