Monday, April 4, 2011

Writing is Obsessive

This morning I read a tweet from an SCBWI colleague, who posted (at midnight) that she was in bed with her manuscript. And I understood completely, since I was up too early and pondering the same book mapping exercise that she is undertaking. We're all slaves to a homework assignment posed by Cheryl Klein, editor extraordinaire at Arthur A. Levine books (and she of Harry Potter continuity editing fame). I ordered a copy of her book Second Sight on revision, and it has once again been a paradigm shift of an exercise (and I've only just begun). I guess that is the good thing about revision. Every time I think I have the ms done, I'm back to the drawing board. But the book gets better every time too which, after all, is surely the point.
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7 comments:

  1. Good Enough WomanApril 4, 2011 at 10:05 AM

    It's so great that you have a manuscript to obsess over. Go, You! I think that's fabulous. And I know what you mean about obsessing. I stopped taking dissertation work to bed b/c I'd get all wired and riled up and would stay up too late. Come to think of it, I *did* get more done back then . . . Hmmmm.

    These days, when I turn out the light, I lie there an plan my YA book. But since I haven't actually written anything, it's more mental meandering than obsession (thus very relaxing).

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  2. loveskidlitApril 4, 2011 at 10:15 AM

    Thanks, GEW. I get riled up if I try to think about it after about 9pm (boy, am I old)! Looking back, the first "I'm finished!" draft was pretty crappy. I should have plotted more meticulously. But then what would I have to obsess over now, right?

    Enjoy the YA planning (pre-writing!). One day, la[ss], all this will be yours...

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  3. AnonymousApril 5, 2011 at 9:37 AM

    Hooray LKL! Keep up the awesomeness.

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  4. loveskidlitApril 6, 2011 at 9:07 AM

    Why, thank you Ink. And ditto to my awesome friends!

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  5. Good Enough WomanApril 7, 2011 at 3:33 PM

    I joined SCBWI! I haven't had much time to poke around the site, but I figured I might as well join and check things out. I think I also might try to explore the possibility of doing some children's magazine writing or something. Maybe this summer I can look into it and try to get started. In the meantime, I'll start trying to learn stuff.

    Also, I followed some of your links, and I bought an Elizabeth Bunce book for my Kindle! And it seems that Kansas is a hotbed of good YA writers!

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  6. Good Enough WomanApril 7, 2011 at 3:34 PM

    I just realized that I had way too many exclamation points in my comment. !

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  7. loveskidlitApril 8, 2011 at 2:51 PM

    GEW: congrats!! Exclamation marks entirely warranted.

    I think you'll get a lot out of the SCBWI membership, and welcome to the community! Have fun writing, and don't fret. The learning curve is steep. But that's part of what makes it fun!

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