sentence crafting, clearly I don't know the art of it. I am totally clueless, lacking.
I keep reading over the sentences I find in actual novels, then going back to my own.
I glean nothing.
I am not improved, in thought, or in ability to perceive, what is good, and what is bad, within that which I call my own. It all just is.
Well perhaps I find a few sentences, paragraphs that I like, and think them pretty good as they are, and I find a few really jarring clunkers, advertising their awkwardness, and I think, 'Yeah, I need to figure out how to fix those.'
But mostly the sentences seem to me to be neither, they just are.
Am I supposed to be trying to make each and every sentence good?
Giving each one specialized, magnified, attention?
I believe I am supposed to be lovingly crafting, chipping away parts, forming, paring down, then polishing all, till stuff shines.
I don't know how to do any of that.
Instead I lift my shoulders, hands open, palms up, a perpetual shrug of questioning, and nothing knowing-ness, err knowing nothingness. Ugh.
I don't know why I am to be filled with ideas, if I am also constrained within a form that lacks skills, and the ability to retain information, understand concepts, and grow.
Then again, also, I fear I am lacking drive, the call to make each part of a structure beautiful and just right.
Yep, definitely gonna need help, outside help, on the whole editing thing.
It is Sunday now, and I am up to over 107,000 words. I don't know much, but I am guite certain that when editing, part of the process is getting rid of all the unnecessary words and sentences. While some areas might need more clarification, thus adding words, still this would be balanced out by getting rid of excess in other areas, so numbers wouldn't go up. Apparently I'm not doing that.
I have been able though to get rid of some the (s). As in: the cat, the calomine lotion, the bag of manure.
2 comments:
This is the time when sharing your work with writing partners becomes critical. We are so seldom able, initially, to see the problems in our own work that it's imperative that we use the eyes of others. Of course, that in itself is a brave step, since it means making ourselves vulnerable to criticism, which will hopefully be constructive.
Yep, sounds like it's time, Taff, to join a critique group or some such similar thing.
Vanilla,
Shudder.
But I know it's true.
I will start with my family though, by end of this week, baby steps.
But I know next it needs to be read by people more versed in writng and reading. People not afraid to help me, even if the help might hurt at times. And whose training will prove helpful in not just knowing that something is wrong, but what that something is, and how I might fix it.
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