#twkp

[prophetic-writer]

I gotta finish writing my book because none of you will understand my url if I don't publish this thing

[prophetic-writer]

Just rearranged my book chapters in an order that makes the plot actually make sense!

Chapter 12 is now chapter 10. Chapter 25 is now in chapter 19. I have cut chapters 21-26.

There is blood all over the keyboard. Someone is screaming. My hands shake. I think I murdered my first draft.

[prophetic-writer]

I just hit 60k on my second draft!

[prophetic-writer]

I'm about to finish the second draft of my WIP and I have to be honest, I never thought I would get this far. Excuse me while I have a minor existential crisis over it.

[prophetic-writer]

Now that I'm officially in the process of writing my SECOND draft of my not-so-secret-super-secret-WIP, I can talk about my game plan for getting this draft done effectively.

Print out the first draft and go at it like crazy with a red pen. Add notes for how the rewrite should go, including preliminary basic editing.

Rewrite the entire 105k book (mostly retyping what I already had) and add in everything from my notes from step 1.

That's it that's the whole plan.

[prophetic-writer]

I (a prose writer) have to write a sonnet for my WIP and I am struggling (no one is making me do this. only myself).

[prophetic-writer]

I just finished the second draft of my first novel. Holy shit I am so damn tired

[prophetic-writer]

as a follow up question to my initial one, i'm wondering what you got out of the experience of studying writing as a major? i'm always curious as to how studying something in an academic setting vs studying it on one's own can shift one's perspective - either on the topic itself, or in other areas, if that makes sense lol

Thank you for asking one of my favorite questions.

For context, I started writing a novel (which I'm still writing lol) when I was in high school and then decided to actually pursue creative writing after I began that project.

When you write your first novel, whether you're 16 (like I was) or 60, there's obviously a learning curve. So, my initial writing skills and background knowledge all came from trial and error, most of which centered more around the writing process and trying to increase creative productivity than it did around producing actually solid, publishable work (which isn't a bad way to start, of course).

I always say that what my degree has taught me is how to learn about writing. In creative writing courses, you do a fair amount of writing but not nearly as much writing as three drafts of a novel entails. So, in my experience, the most informative parts of my creative writing classes came from the reading and discussion. Breaking down different pieces and figuring out how they function, how different techniques affect a piece, and where those techniques originate are all super helpful for understanding writing better.

I can read a book or watch a movie and understand it as a functional process now. It's like taking apart a clock and figuring out where each wheel and cog goes and why it goes there. Sometimes this ruins books and movies for me, because I'm not just thinking about what they're doing but how and why. But now when I'm having a BIG problem with a piece (like the novel) I can take it apart and figure out which cog isn't where I need it to be.

I definitely don't know everything I need to know about writing but my degree has given me the tools to figure things out when I don't know them, if that makes sense.

Thanks for the ask! I usually don't get too much into the meta of how I come across the kinds of things I share on this blog so it's fun to get a chance to talk about that a bit. Ultimately I think that writing is a process of learning and unlearning and learning again. It might be a cliché way to talk about a writing degree but truthfully I think the most valuable skill it's given me is the ability to continue learning about writing on my own.

-M