re-draft – The Writer's Den

HAPPY THURSDAY!!!

So, I forgot to write my blog post yesterday. I was too busy watching the Lorax (don’t bother with it) and losing miserably at the local pub quiz (“What does the ‘para’ stand for in the ‘paralympics’” Not. A. Clue.).

Ok, I wasn’t overly busy at all. The point is, I forgot. And forgetting is bad. ESPECIALLY when it comes to writing.

So, just a quick tip for today: when you’re writing your story, NOTE EVERY SINGLE DETAIL ABOUT YOUR WORLD DOWN in a separate document. Write everything down about your characters (eye color, likes, dislikes, important things they’ve said, background, family). Write everything down about your settings (especially important if you’re writing in a different world to Earth). Most importantly, write any important incidents down (deaths, births, break ups, etc). If you’re not the sort of person who plans everything out before they start to write, compile your lists and documents as you go along.

Trust me, this’ll save SO MUCH TIME when you’re editing your piece. Without your handy info at the ready, you’re bound to forget something important about your story. I know I have. Once, I had a character at the beginning of one of my novels mourning over the death of her father. Then, at the end of the book, the same character decides to go visit her father for some advice. Hmmm. Yeah, mine’s a pretty extreme case, but it can happen!

Book Rec of the Week

Anathem by Neal Stephenson

“It’s a huge ambitious book of the kind that only science fiction can produce. It’s a whole world of funny words and nifty ideas to sink into. It is also unquestionably one of the most important books of the last ten years, one of the things that in twenty or thirty years we’ll look back on and say, “Yes, that’s what science fiction was up to in that non-decade that began the new millennium.” We won’t be saying this from our retreats in giant clock monasteries, but then nobody ever suggested we would.”

-Jo Walton, Tor.com

suggestion made by NaNoWriMo Coordinator Ari Reider

“One big reason I loved Anathem was for its worldbuilding, creating a fantasy-style world based on mathematical principles that was not only incredibly creative and unique, but also fleshed out and developed enough to be a believable and compelling world. The twists and turns that the story takes were also a huge draw to me. The book also raises a number of scientific and philosophical questions that I still think about more than ten years after reading it for the first time. The book is a little daunting in terms of length, but I remember it being very worth the read.”

Tag: re-draft

On Forgetfulness