Wednesday, April 22, 2009

And in this corner....!

Logic!

Oh dear.

It's no secret, at least to my editors and crit group, that I have a problem with logical progression. It's not that I'll suddenly be on a boat when I should be in the living room of a Victorian home, but moving from one flow to another sometimes my mind sees it in what I've written, and no else does.

That's not a bad thing.

It makes me think. Causes me to have a deeper vision, a stronger picture to deliver in the telling of the story. I have to ask myself more questions, make more finite details, in less or more words or just write what I really meant to say. Sometimes I write too fast, or get too engrossed in my characters and dialogue to fill in the necessities. That's not a problem either. I mean, it's all fixable.

This post isn't about getting it right or getting it perfect as you write, or the magic elixir to give you that perfection. It's a personal look at a single person's writing style. And it's a very strong argument for needing a reading partner to go over your work to find those moments that are SO clear in your own mind, but make them go "huh?"

Because that's perfectly okay.

No one writes a perfect first draft. Even Nora Roberts has admitted that everyone needs editors. Logic is one of those points where I know I need someone else to read for me, to tell me when I've left out a singular (and likely clarifying as a microscope) narrative or transition because it's clear as mud to everyone but me.

So in truth, logic and I have a truce. We stay in our adjacent corners and I only get beat up as necessary, because believe me, we'll probably never be friends.

And I'm okay with that. I'd much rather have a tough crit or edit, than a string of rejections because of logic. It's an easy fix because no one knows the story better than the person who wrote it.

1 comment:

Z(Aasiyah/Nolwynn) said...

Amen to that last paragraph, sister!

Very true that it can all be fixed, and asking questions is always good, beacuse it makes you know your story/characters even better.

And that, is your biggest weapon!

Hugs

Z(Aasiyah/Nolwynn)