MONDAY MUSINGS: IT DON'T COME EASY

Writing a story is capturing the vision and sounds in our minds and putting them into words.

                                                                                                                                                

My husband has been editing the first of several books of a detective series he's written. Hub's has had two skilled writer/editors look at the first manuscript. One loved the smart-ass character and his corny jokes as well as the premise of story, except for a few things which take up a couple of pages. The other wasn't as enamored of the politically incorrect, smart ass character, but also gave several pages of story fix-its. 

Dan has been groaning. A lot. 

Writing is a love/hate relationship. As Ringo Starr once sang, "You know it don't come easy..."

The writer that tells you that the words always flow and the stories are easy is either lying or living in an alternate universe. We all hit spots that required discipline and yes, work. Even when we get the essence of the scene down, the editing of the word choices, the phrasing and descriptions, and the action and emotion, is work. Hard work. You strive for painting each scene as clearly as you can and giving it the most impact so it flows seamlessly into the next. That may take several revisions.

Revisions and editing are not easy. Or at least they aren't in my world.

Some writers tend to write the initial draft of their work in bare bones scenes. I’d compare it to an animator who does the preliminary pencil sketches. They capture the essence of the scene with dialog and action and leave the fill in work for the first pass. Others write fairly detailed scenes of the vision see in their mind and then go back and cut out the superfluous details to bring into focus the core of the story.

My husband has also been researching query letters. This morning he asked me, "Do you know how many conflicting ideas there are out there on writing a good query letter?"

Yes, dear, I know. I know.

• Do you have a style of writing your first draft or does it vary with the story?

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