Just Another Week in Suburbia: Revision ~ Part 1
Writing’s a spill. Even the most calculated first draft is a mess. But revision is where you find shape. After I’ve finished writing something, I’ll read it repeatedly while my head’s still in that world, fleshing out the story as much as possible. When I’m done, I’ll put it away for as long as possible – for at least a month. But I’ve got manuscripts that have sat in exile for years. Often, ideas for revision will occur to me – it’s always the same: once you step away from the computer, that’s when the ideas come. I think this is because when you sit down to write, you put…
Just Another Week in Suburbia: Methodology and the Other Characters
I don’t start writing anything until I have a rough idea of the story I want to tell. As I write, ideas will occur to me that might or need to happen later. I dot point these. In the case of Just Another Week in Suburbia, which was set over seven days, I also drew up a table with columns for each day, and would dot-point where applicable. (Things still changed.) Often, I’ll realise that something needs to be foreshadowed earlier or revised. I’ll make a list of these revisions, and attend them at the beginning of each writing session. That helps me get straight back into the writing since…