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Troy Kirby

Monday, May 2, 2011

Springer's Final Thought... On writing...

Self editing, which I mentioned in a previous post, is something that I am doing currently for the follow-up novel to Crunk. I do this immediately after writing the final draft before submitting it to my readers. What this does is keep it fresh in my mind, any changes or alterations that I have to ensure are made or smoothed out. Plus, it gets me going to cut through all of the nonsense in terms of sentence reduction.

Sentences and paragraphs always can be reduced. I enjoy cutting them because it means them lean and mean. Blog posts, to me, are the only first draftish stuff I publish, mainly because it is a free-flowing thought process. Sure, I check for spelling, but the rest is about it. What you see is what you get. Otherwise it would take about forty years to produce one month's worth of blog posts. And who wants that?

This does not mean that I don't write 5,000 words or could any of the edits that I do to the finished edition as part of my 5,000 word count. That ain't really rewriting at that point, so I can't defend it as part of my writing regime. While working on the edits for the final draft, I also write or rewrite other stories. It develops my skill while attempting to enhance the presentation of each story.

Imagine you are a basketball player. You play NBA games every night. You still have to shoot practice shots. If you notice, NBA players have warm-up shots before each game. They also have other practice shots, informal or formal. They shoot probably a 1,000 shots per day. And still, guys in the NBA shoot 50 percent on average over a season. That was the problem with Allen Iverson. He didn't like to practice. He scored a lot, on a lot of attempts, but eventually, as his attempts averaged out, his skills diminished and so did his ability to score. He got washed-out of the league, and is playing in Turkey somewhere, riding some broken down bus with roosters and chickens on the cages.

That's why the 5,000 words per day is important. It builds you ability to write, anything.

If you don't put in the work, it doesn't happen. And whatever you've written is garbage compared to what you have to the opportunity to write next. It will be garbage until you have the guts to have someone who doesn't like or is indifferent to you who says that it is good enough to publish. I believe ex-girlfriends work best in this model (not as big of a joke as you would think).

You need someone who will tell you what sucks.

That person who tells you they don't get it (character, plot, entire episodes of scenes).

You need that in order to understand how to build a great story, character arch, etc.

Comedians called it "stage time."

It can't be taught as much as earned. You have to keep writing, waiting until it is good enough to publish. Your first idea for a book is going to the best right at the moment, however, in five years, you will shake your head that you ever thought it was good enough for a story. Trust me, this happens more than you think.

A lot of people can sell you on a pitch. This amazes me because the pitch has superseded the prose in some cases. Just write the damn thing, get it out of your system, and go to the next story. If you can't think up a new story, you are screwed. Because each story gets you closer to your goal.

The NBA players were in AAU basketball (kid club teams), then they went to high school, then they did college. Then some of them went to the NBA Development League. Most went to the NBA. Only about ten percent are all-stars. You may not have the skills to be an all-star outright. But here's the deal, some of the NBA's good players are not their all-stars.

Give you an example: Rodney Rogers. Rex Chapman. Terry Porter. These guys weren't dominating the league. They were just consistently good. They wanted it more than anyone else. They were gym rats who clawed and scratched for everything they ever got.

Here's some bad ones: Kwame Brown. Darius Miles. Shawn Bradley. Guys thought to be can't miss because of the talent. But they failed. Why? Because they didn't have or do what it took to survive. They didn't fit beyond themselves to improve themselves day after day. That's why they are collecting unemployment checks rather than having their jerseys sell in the league.

In this life, you get one chance (thank you, eminem). That means that you either work on your skills or you become the person who suggests "there's no money in it." Tell that to the people who have continued to hone their skills. They tend to be the people who when asked to put up or shut up have definitely done the former, not the later.

This is where self-editing comes into the mix. A lot of people don't want to go over their revisions. They want to write three drafts, give it to an editor, then makes some superficial changes before publishing. If you want to do that, you are not honing your skills. This is the part where people say "in my opinion" to keep people from jumping down their throats. Of course it's my opinion, it's my blog.

I think that by self-editing and delving deep into your book, after a long period in which you've likely forgotten why the hell you liked the idea in the first place. After you've already decided that some of the issues are past, that you can't recall what made the character do this or that. Those are the times that you need to self-edit your work. It makes it more personal and allows you to build.

Are you catching this? This is the key, so you might want to listen up. (That's my Darryl Hannah impression from Kill Bill Vol. 2).

Just do it.

Flush the issues at home.

Flush the kids (feed them, put them to bed, but write if that's really what you want out of life).

Be a little more selfish.

This is your life, do what you want with it.

You know what? During that meeting at the office where you don't really say anything anyway, why not sketch out a storyline? Why not develop a real writing form?

Wake up at 6:30 a.m. if you have to in order to have a half hour to yourself.

Just get your 5,000 words in. Develop what you want.

Or don't write. Just forget it.

And that includes refusing to really self-edit your work. Because you'd rather do something else. If that's what is important to you, then you need to do that, instead of writing. It's up to you what you want out of this world. You get to chose. But chose wisely, my friend.

William Falkner worked as a postman his entire life. But he found time to write.

Others have worked day jobs. Charles Bukowski worked randomly, but made it work because what he wanted to do was write. More than anything else.

Great, see, you made me go off into a tangent. And here I thought it was going to be about self-editing. Maybe that's the point. It's not where you start, it's where you finish. And maybe that's the best way to end this blog post.

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