The King On Everything You Need to Know About Writing Successfully
I stumbled across this writing list from Stephen King a few days ago and one little bit has stuck in my head. "Never look at a reference book while doing a first draft." This is hard, physically painful for me because I'm looking for a word, I know I'm looking for a word, Oh, God, it's on the tip of my tongue, what is it? and of course I immediately turn to Bookshelf, my online thesa -- how do you spell that one? Oh, here it is, urus...
Yes, I understand why King is saying this. When you focus on the words, on the rhythm of your sentence, you are being you, the author, rather than you, the character.
So, on Wednesday I sat down, and closed down email, I just began to read over what I had written and edit it and write. I didn't do a lot of pages (six), but I did get a better feel for the amorphous beings that I need to turn into real characters. Today I'm going to do the same thing, I think. The words can be fixed latter, and if I mispell a few words, who cares on the first drafted? The story is always about the characters.
It's been a slow news day today, only I've been thinking more the Prince Charles/Bowles romance and I think I've been focusing on the wrong romance. Think about this, People consider Diana a modern-day Cinderella, but in reality, Bowles is the true heroine of the story. Charles and Camilla were an item starting in 1971, when Diana was 10 years old. Charles and Camilla have been together for almost 34 years. Due to the constraints of his position, Charles could never have married Camilla, so he chose the "suitable" bride instead. But responsibility and loyalty to his country couldn't keep them apart. I feel very sorry for Diana, how hard it would have been to have the world think you're a fairy-tale princess, but instead you're the woman who stood between true love. Kinda like in Shrek, only Camilla isn't green.
Anyway, we jump to conclusions so often (for instance, that no-blown Corey Feldman/Michael Jackson affair), but sometimes the Camilla Bowles of the world have their day, too. April 8, apparently.
Yes, I understand why King is saying this. When you focus on the words, on the rhythm of your sentence, you are being you, the author, rather than you, the character.
So, on Wednesday I sat down, and closed down email, I just began to read over what I had written and edit it and write. I didn't do a lot of pages (six), but I did get a better feel for the amorphous beings that I need to turn into real characters. Today I'm going to do the same thing, I think. The words can be fixed latter, and if I mispell a few words, who cares on the first drafted? The story is always about the characters.
It's been a slow news day today, only I've been thinking more the Prince Charles/Bowles romance and I think I've been focusing on the wrong romance. Think about this, People consider Diana a modern-day Cinderella, but in reality, Bowles is the true heroine of the story. Charles and Camilla were an item starting in 1971, when Diana was 10 years old. Charles and Camilla have been together for almost 34 years. Due to the constraints of his position, Charles could never have married Camilla, so he chose the "suitable" bride instead. But responsibility and loyalty to his country couldn't keep them apart. I feel very sorry for Diana, how hard it would have been to have the world think you're a fairy-tale princess, but instead you're the woman who stood between true love. Kinda like in Shrek, only Camilla isn't green.
Anyway, we jump to conclusions so often (for instance, that no-blown Corey Feldman/Michael Jackson affair), but sometimes the Camilla Bowles of the world have their day, too. April 8, apparently.
posted by Kathleen at 9:22 AM
7 Comments:
I'm betting that King runs off and researches sometimes as well. But I do notice a difference in my characters when I write around a lot of distractions, vs when I sit and just be them
I loved King's book 'On Writing'. I've been listening to it at night. (I downloaded it after reading the book.) It was nice to be reminded about the little things. I'll have to try to leave my thesarus alone sometime and see if it makes any difference in my writing. The surprise line in the list for me was the one about agents. I have several friends on the agent hunt. I wonder how many would continue after reading this advice. Jordan
I was just about to blog on the Charles/Camilla romance. It's really an epic romance, even though it's tempting to see her as just the evil mistress who destroyed a marriage. Of course, if this were a traditional romance novel, the virgin wife would surely have triumphed over the older, less comely mistress.
Jordan, I wouldn't send anybody into the single-title world without an agent. King started in short-stories, if I remember correctly? Most houses don't look at manuscripts without an agent anymore and editors are too busy, IMHO, to give the slush pile more than a passing glance. Tell your friends to keep after it. Again, IMHO. Now, if they're querying Harlequin, the doors wide open if you're agentless.
Kat, when I was reading the stories in the paper this morning, I realized exactly how long these people had been working to be together.
When you start visualizing the story through Camilla's eyes, it's like Wicked, where the wicked witch is the one who's been misunderstood. Very romantic, all of it. I love it when the anti-heroes become the heroes.....
Kathleen- Thanks, I stumbled upon your site today..even left you an email. I also wanted to say thanks for informing us about Camilla, I never knew that and I always believed she just broke up a marriage. Never knew that they had loved each other before. Sounds like a neat romance story as well. :)
Eliza, thanks for stopping by. I don't pretend to know all the ins-and-outs of the royal affairs, however, my opinion changed when I starting doing the math. I think there's a marvelous story there as well, however, I have a suspicion that it's a story that Camilla nor Charles will ever tell.
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