"Before you write, every single time, be securely in the moment you are writing. Know exactly where your character/self is in time and space," from The Practice of Creative Writing page 109.
This has to be one of my favorite quotes in the chapter of images in the afore mentioned book. It helps me stay focus on the images that I want to create rather than the thoughts going into the images. I've noticed in my creative writing that I add in too much thought. I second guess myself, which isn't good because the readers will start to second guess the book and the image that they are trying to create. It doesn't create a smooth ride for the readers if they have to think about the writing and think about what's being said. One of my favorite quotes ever is, "When something can be read without effort, great effort has gone into its writing." ~Enrique Jardiel Poncela.
This quote says how much work is put into writing and when something can be read without effort, you can tell that the writer cared very much about their writing. This is the kind of writing I hope I'll be able to do, in the future.
Yet, one of the things I'm most unsure of is character profiles. I can understand the need to put height, weight, hair color, and eye color, I mean, I even do sketches of my characters to get a feel for them (albeit the drawings really aren't that great) and I may put in some background, so I can see where my characters are coming from. My problem, though, is going into detail on your character when all you want is a small summary. I think that if you go into too much detail on your character you'll loose any wiggle room for them to run wild with. Besides, how are you going to develop your characters if you have all of their personalities written down to a T?
If you already know exactly how they act and don't allow them to go outside that little box then your characters are probably going to get boring after a while. Even on cartoon shows that run for seasons, you can see some development of character (unless it's Spongebob, I don't think he has every really developed). What I'm getting at, is even when you're 90 years old, your personality could change within a year if the right circumstances were put upon you, so why can't a 15, 21, 30, 45, 57 year old change in a believable way?
Revision can be fun sometimes. If you really enjoy the story you've written and think that it's one of the best you've written. Yet, it can be hard. This first paper for my class I've completely rewrote 3 times, and I wasn't happy with it until the third paper. My first paper was too whimsical, it wasn't concrete, and there were a lot of thoughts in it rather than images. I didn't leap, I just wrote it straight through.
My second draft was after I talked to my professor about the first. I didn't care for it too much because it was too factual. The whole time I was writing it, I was wondering where I could put in my own imagination, and kept backing away from adding anything in. I think that while I barely remember this story besides the fact that it was really factual, it was really helpful in creating a concrete basis in my story.
I started off my third draft very awkwardly, kind of similar to my second draft, but I stopped writing it when I realized that it wasn't image based, but thought based. I don't know what happened during that time either, but I suddenly got an image, or an idea (my book prefers image over idea because image is imagination based, and idea is though based, and it doesn't like wordy thoughts) of my main characters father being in the tavern where the catalyst happens. I was very happy with the turnout of that image, and starting off my story with a nice image is a great way to keep a story more image base because you're always referring back to that image at the start. If you start with an image and slowly go towards a more thought based story, it doesn't seem to hold together as well. At least that's what I believe.
Also, readers can tell when an author has gone through a lot of work to make a novel easy to read, although I don't think they know it when they first read it if it's really good, but a reader can tell when a story isn't quite right. Plus, it takes time to get a following of readers, with everything, not just publishing. We can't all be one hit wonders, and I personally would rather not be a one hit wonder. Revision isn't just something that can be tagged at the end of a story as a to do. It should be something thought provoking. Revision should get your mind working, figuring out what works, and what doesn't in a story. If stories didn't rely on revision, then many books would not still be around because they wouldn't have been as good, no matter how unique and well thought out the story is.
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