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Hello, furballs, and welcome to the next part of my little writer's assistance guide! In my earlier guides, you've learned a bit about how to fight your way through writer's block, how to remain motivated, and how to realize your time. If you've found yourself time to write, then you've probably produced something. Personally, I'm writing this after finishing off the fourth chapter of a novel I got up nice and early just to take a crack at. But what you've produced, just like what I produced, is not ready to be seen just yet. Why? Because you need to understand revision first. And that is what I'm here to attempt to impart today.
First, a reiteration of some core facts about this guide. I am NOT a trained writer. I've done no courses, no workshops. I don't attend any writers groups, and I don't claim to have professional knowledge. I HAVE been writing for over ten years, and I HAVE sought out the knowledge that I can to improve my skills. However, this little guide is going to have little to nothing to do with technical writing, if I have my way. Rather, this guide is being provided as a way to motivate and inspire other writers here on this site. I'm not going to tell you what to write, or how to write. I only hope to provide you with some mental ‘tools' that will allow you to craft your words to their greatest potential. That said, let us begin!
The next lessons is this: No one gets it right the first go!
... alright, fine. I lied. Some people do get it right the first go. They're the wordsmiths, the master writers of history. They're the people that you could call a genius of the written word. Some people are just naturally gifted enough that they can write something, and their first draft is perfect. This is a rare, rare gift. Chances are, you don't have it. No, really. You probably don't. You almost definitely don't have the even rarer gift, whereby you can write perfection in your first draft and have never trained yourself to do that. Personally, I don't believe such people exist. I believe that hard work and perseverance is what achieves results, and that no one is so gifted that they don't have to work at anything.
So. What is revision to you, then? ‘Annoying' would be the first thing in my mind, because that's how I view it. Hell, you just created something. It's absolutely fantastic. The best thing you've ever written. Why wouldn't you want to throw it out to the eager throng that is your audience? Well, because you're not finished. What you've accomplished is a first draft, the initial stages of any piece. It's nothing more than a glorified outline to some, and at its best it's a firm foundation for improvement. For me, it's more the latter. Part of that is born out of my utter disdain for rewriting, but part of that is in how I plan. Planning, for the record, will be part of a later guide.
Revision is necessary because of how we perceive our work over time, as small as over a few minutes or as long as over twenty years. In the few minutes after you finish something, you might begin to read over it anew. You'll notice little things right away. Maybe you spelled something wrong, or a sentence doesn't feel right in your head. You scribble in your changes, and it's all patched and better. What you don't realize is that you're not seeing everything just yet, and further revision is necessary. Why? Because of how we often see our own work.
It doesn't matter if you're your own worst critic (like me), or if you believe you're the best thing since sliced bread (like some people I won't name). When you finish something, it's fresh in your mind from start to finish. You know how you intended to write everything down, little mistakes of grammar and punctuation are going to be beyond you to miss. You might have missed a word entirely in your eagerness to get everything down, like the ‘and' that should have followed the comma in the previous sentence. You won't notice these things right away, because you won't have given your mind time to step back from what you know should be there.
So you need to un-freshen your mind before you begin to revise your work. How do you do that? Well, there's two ways that I personally use, but I won't dwell on them for long. Firstly, I start writing something different. That usually sets my mind on a different track, and gives me enough time on another piece that my mind's focus shifts to it. Then I can return to my original work, and read through it for those mistakes. Or secondly, you can just give yourself time. Take a month at the very least, and a couple years if you can. In attempting to retell my Chronicles of Sol story, I've seen so much that I'd done wrong that all my work before it is nothing but a glorified outline. And yet, despite that, it's all helping me continue on.
How do I revise my work? It depends on the kind of work. If it's a short story like I upload here and to YS, my revision and editing work is minimal. In a burst of ego, I'll say that I honestly believe myself to be a skilled enough writer than my smutty works here are of a high enough quality to be read almost as I finish them. What I do is read through them after letting them cool off in my mind. I correct sentence structure that I feel is off, I make sure that everything flows right, and I check all my punctuation. Some things still slip through, and they always will when your revision process is so thin. But for my work at least, it produces passable-enough quality to upload for horny furs to enjoy.
When it's a larger project though, a lot more is required. I have a novel sitting on my laptop, desktop, and USB thumb drive. It's about a hundred and fifty thousand words long. The last time I even looked at it was in February. I've been letting it sit and simmer away before I go back to it again. A large part of the revision process for me, on a bigger project, is to give my work time so that I can look at it with fresh (and yes, more critical) eyes. I'll read through it, and do all the little things that I do with a short story. And then I'll go back and rewrite entire sections that don't seem to match up. Is there a continuity problem between the event in the village and the meeting in the castle? Did I change the story as I wrote, so that the outline I followed wasn't accurate enough anymore? Do my characters have enough depth and scope? Is the twist foreshadowed, but not obvious? Is everything a bit too cliché?
It's a nightmare, a veritable clusterfuck of conflicting ideas and thoughts and criticism. I sort through each problem one by one, listed in a notepad as I read through the most recent draft. I order them based on importance to the overall story, with each weighted by the impact they have on story, character, creativity and technicality. And then, notebook and red pen firmly in my hand, I attack that which has offended my delicate literary sensibilities. And I take my time with each one. Why? Well, if my work is worth the effort to perfect like this, why would I not take the time I need to tell the story I want to tell?
Revision and rewriting are evil. Even so, they are a necessary evil. Without it, you simply won't learn how to take your writing to the next level. Writing, as with anything in life, is a constant learning experience. What you learn is based entirely on what you push yourself to learn. If you're unwilling to learn how to best streamline your writing and make it the best that it can be, then you're never going to progress at the rate of some others around you. Learn from your own writing, and use what you've learned to correct your mistakes in the future. Learn to prevent those mistakes, and who knows? You might even learn to be one of those gifted writers who doesn't need to revise their works. You might learn to get it right on the first go.
So, it's bullet-point time! What have we learned here?
- No one gets it right with their first draft.
- Typing, "The End" isn't really the end; it just means you finished a first draft.
- Little mistakes can missed because of how we correct them in our head; time away from the piece can expose those mistakes to us, like the mistake earlier in this point.
- Distraction from your work before editing can be achieved by working on other pieces, or by setting it aside for a while. No shorter than a month!
- Read through the piece you want to revise, and have a notebook handy to jot down errors, mistakes, and other miscellanea as you read. Always keep notes on your re-reads, and leave no stone unturned!
- Systematically work through your piece, addressing each issue as you've noted it during your reading sessions.
- Your story is worth the effort to revise. Why? Because you thought it was worth the effort to write in the first place!
- You'll eventually learn how to preemptively incorporate your editing processes in your writing processes, and shorten your revision time dramatically.
This is another of those writing articles that's really more geared towards the serious author than the hobbyist writer. As time goes on, I'm probably going to slip into more of those than the casual, for-everyone pieces I did in the beginning. I still hope that there's knowledge I've picked up along the way that others who read these articles will be able to pick up on, and use for themselves regardless of their writing level.
So what's next? We're going to open up the toolbox next time, and we're going to look at some of the different tools that writers have at their disposal. Everyone has their own toolbox, and everyone has their own tools. Some of us share tools though, and a few of those tools are what we're going to talk about next time. Until then though, take care and keep writing!
Faora
First, a reiteration of some core facts about this guide. I am NOT a trained writer. I've done no courses, no workshops. I don't attend any writers groups, and I don't claim to have professional knowledge. I HAVE been writing for over ten years, and I HAVE sought out the knowledge that I can to improve my skills. However, this little guide is going to have little to nothing to do with technical writing, if I have my way. Rather, this guide is being provided as a way to motivate and inspire other writers here on this site. I'm not going to tell you what to write, or how to write. I only hope to provide you with some mental ‘tools' that will allow you to craft your words to their greatest potential. That said, let us begin!
The next lessons is this: No one gets it right the first go!
... alright, fine. I lied. Some people do get it right the first go. They're the wordsmiths, the master writers of history. They're the people that you could call a genius of the written word. Some people are just naturally gifted enough that they can write something, and their first draft is perfect. This is a rare, rare gift. Chances are, you don't have it. No, really. You probably don't. You almost definitely don't have the even rarer gift, whereby you can write perfection in your first draft and have never trained yourself to do that. Personally, I don't believe such people exist. I believe that hard work and perseverance is what achieves results, and that no one is so gifted that they don't have to work at anything.
So. What is revision to you, then? ‘Annoying' would be the first thing in my mind, because that's how I view it. Hell, you just created something. It's absolutely fantastic. The best thing you've ever written. Why wouldn't you want to throw it out to the eager throng that is your audience? Well, because you're not finished. What you've accomplished is a first draft, the initial stages of any piece. It's nothing more than a glorified outline to some, and at its best it's a firm foundation for improvement. For me, it's more the latter. Part of that is born out of my utter disdain for rewriting, but part of that is in how I plan. Planning, for the record, will be part of a later guide.
Revision is necessary because of how we perceive our work over time, as small as over a few minutes or as long as over twenty years. In the few minutes after you finish something, you might begin to read over it anew. You'll notice little things right away. Maybe you spelled something wrong, or a sentence doesn't feel right in your head. You scribble in your changes, and it's all patched and better. What you don't realize is that you're not seeing everything just yet, and further revision is necessary. Why? Because of how we often see our own work.
It doesn't matter if you're your own worst critic (like me), or if you believe you're the best thing since sliced bread (like some people I won't name). When you finish something, it's fresh in your mind from start to finish. You know how you intended to write everything down, little mistakes of grammar and punctuation are going to be beyond you to miss. You might have missed a word entirely in your eagerness to get everything down, like the ‘and' that should have followed the comma in the previous sentence. You won't notice these things right away, because you won't have given your mind time to step back from what you know should be there.
So you need to un-freshen your mind before you begin to revise your work. How do you do that? Well, there's two ways that I personally use, but I won't dwell on them for long. Firstly, I start writing something different. That usually sets my mind on a different track, and gives me enough time on another piece that my mind's focus shifts to it. Then I can return to my original work, and read through it for those mistakes. Or secondly, you can just give yourself time. Take a month at the very least, and a couple years if you can. In attempting to retell my Chronicles of Sol story, I've seen so much that I'd done wrong that all my work before it is nothing but a glorified outline. And yet, despite that, it's all helping me continue on.
How do I revise my work? It depends on the kind of work. If it's a short story like I upload here and to YS, my revision and editing work is minimal. In a burst of ego, I'll say that I honestly believe myself to be a skilled enough writer than my smutty works here are of a high enough quality to be read almost as I finish them. What I do is read through them after letting them cool off in my mind. I correct sentence structure that I feel is off, I make sure that everything flows right, and I check all my punctuation. Some things still slip through, and they always will when your revision process is so thin. But for my work at least, it produces passable-enough quality to upload for horny furs to enjoy.
When it's a larger project though, a lot more is required. I have a novel sitting on my laptop, desktop, and USB thumb drive. It's about a hundred and fifty thousand words long. The last time I even looked at it was in February. I've been letting it sit and simmer away before I go back to it again. A large part of the revision process for me, on a bigger project, is to give my work time so that I can look at it with fresh (and yes, more critical) eyes. I'll read through it, and do all the little things that I do with a short story. And then I'll go back and rewrite entire sections that don't seem to match up. Is there a continuity problem between the event in the village and the meeting in the castle? Did I change the story as I wrote, so that the outline I followed wasn't accurate enough anymore? Do my characters have enough depth and scope? Is the twist foreshadowed, but not obvious? Is everything a bit too cliché?
It's a nightmare, a veritable clusterfuck of conflicting ideas and thoughts and criticism. I sort through each problem one by one, listed in a notepad as I read through the most recent draft. I order them based on importance to the overall story, with each weighted by the impact they have on story, character, creativity and technicality. And then, notebook and red pen firmly in my hand, I attack that which has offended my delicate literary sensibilities. And I take my time with each one. Why? Well, if my work is worth the effort to perfect like this, why would I not take the time I need to tell the story I want to tell?
Revision and rewriting are evil. Even so, they are a necessary evil. Without it, you simply won't learn how to take your writing to the next level. Writing, as with anything in life, is a constant learning experience. What you learn is based entirely on what you push yourself to learn. If you're unwilling to learn how to best streamline your writing and make it the best that it can be, then you're never going to progress at the rate of some others around you. Learn from your own writing, and use what you've learned to correct your mistakes in the future. Learn to prevent those mistakes, and who knows? You might even learn to be one of those gifted writers who doesn't need to revise their works. You might learn to get it right on the first go.
So, it's bullet-point time! What have we learned here?
- No one gets it right with their first draft.
- Typing, "The End" isn't really the end; it just means you finished a first draft.
- Little mistakes can missed because of how we correct them in our head; time away from the piece can expose those mistakes to us, like the mistake earlier in this point.
- Distraction from your work before editing can be achieved by working on other pieces, or by setting it aside for a while. No shorter than a month!
- Read through the piece you want to revise, and have a notebook handy to jot down errors, mistakes, and other miscellanea as you read. Always keep notes on your re-reads, and leave no stone unturned!
- Systematically work through your piece, addressing each issue as you've noted it during your reading sessions.
- Your story is worth the effort to revise. Why? Because you thought it was worth the effort to write in the first place!
- You'll eventually learn how to preemptively incorporate your editing processes in your writing processes, and shorten your revision time dramatically.
This is another of those writing articles that's really more geared towards the serious author than the hobbyist writer. As time goes on, I'm probably going to slip into more of those than the casual, for-everyone pieces I did in the beginning. I still hope that there's knowledge I've picked up along the way that others who read these articles will be able to pick up on, and use for themselves regardless of their writing level.
So what's next? We're going to open up the toolbox next time, and we're going to look at some of the different tools that writers have at their disposal. Everyone has their own toolbox, and everyone has their own tools. Some of us share tools though, and a few of those tools are what we're going to talk about next time. Until then though, take care and keep writing!
Faora
Category Story / Tutorials
Species Western Dragon
Size 120 x 120px
File Size 175.8 kB
I happily read every word, and agree except that waiting a month is an awful long time, and as you said, waste no time in writing. That might be why you say you usually write something else to distract your mind, that's a good idea, but sometimes we don't always want to write something else either, because our minds are so focused on what we were already working on.
Once that focus is broken, THAT is the right time to go back and do your revision. I expect some people it will take much less than a month for that to happen. Sometimes it only takes me an hour or two. I do agree that you need the break to refocus though. That is definitely a key to success. Unless you really don't care about your hard work.
Once that focus is broken, THAT is the right time to go back and do your revision. I expect some people it will take much less than a month for that to happen. Sometimes it only takes me an hour or two. I do agree that you need the break to refocus though. That is definitely a key to success. Unless you really don't care about your hard work.
Waiting a month might seem like a long time, but if it's a major project then I honestly believe that's the bare minimum amount of time someone should wait before launching into the editing process. Remember, it's because you need to look at something with fresh eyes, rather than the same pair you had while writing. While the story is still fresh in your mind, you're looking at it with rose-tinted glasses.
And I certainly don't advocate a month of doing nothing. That's a whole month of time to spend writing! *chuckles* I usually alternate between a lot of different major projects, myself. Keeps my mind fresh on what I'm editing, keeps me focused on the analytical task of editing rather than the creative task of the initial writing, and lets me view my work a lot more critically. This was what I tried to convey, but perhaps I didn't do the best job with it. Sorry!
Hope you liked the guide, and were able to take away a different viewpoint to consider. That's all I really want to present here!
Faora
And I certainly don't advocate a month of doing nothing. That's a whole month of time to spend writing! *chuckles* I usually alternate between a lot of different major projects, myself. Keeps my mind fresh on what I'm editing, keeps me focused on the analytical task of editing rather than the creative task of the initial writing, and lets me view my work a lot more critically. This was what I tried to convey, but perhaps I didn't do the best job with it. Sorry!
Hope you liked the guide, and were able to take away a different viewpoint to consider. That's all I really want to present here!
Faora
Your efforts don't go wasted. It was enjoyable (as long as you're interested in learning something...some people think they already know it all), and its major point of taking a break and coming back to your work was not overlooked at all.
It's just the wait a whole month thing. I agree the longer you wait, the more critically you can look at your works, it just depends on (like you said in your comment) the extensiveness of the project. See, I'm more of a poet, and so my works are usually much shorter than a novel.
It's just the wait a whole month thing. I agree the longer you wait, the more critically you can look at your works, it just depends on (like you said in your comment) the extensiveness of the project. See, I'm more of a poet, and so my works are usually much shorter than a novel.
Ah, well there we go! The guides I write are written from the perspective of someone who writes novel-length pieces for the most part, and takes little dalliances into short-story territory (and gratuitous furry smut, as well) when the mood strikes him. Perhaps I should add a disclaimer that the target audience is story writers rather than poets, since I don't know the first thing for poetry and I'm now a little afraid of alienating poets in this little community.
You're right; with poetry, it would make sense that time before revision would be shorter. The length of the piece in question should always be proportional to the amount of time you have to take away from it, at minimum. The longer the better, I will maintain. However, in poetry, the shorter length and difference in scope and story would result in a significantly different revision period.
But I'm not one to talk about poetry, as I've mentioned above. So, open floor! Any poets out there who wish to suggest their own advice on revision of their works? Perhaps we can ball it together to expand on the above article!
Faora
You're right; with poetry, it would make sense that time before revision would be shorter. The length of the piece in question should always be proportional to the amount of time you have to take away from it, at minimum. The longer the better, I will maintain. However, in poetry, the shorter length and difference in scope and story would result in a significantly different revision period.
But I'm not one to talk about poetry, as I've mentioned above. So, open floor! Any poets out there who wish to suggest their own advice on revision of their works? Perhaps we can ball it together to expand on the above article!
Faora
The best I could add is that with Poetry, the waiting period, unless it's an epic poem, or Shakespearean, we're talking a few days instead of a month. Again that's only an 'AT LEAST' amount of time, and it's only if you want it to be more perfected when you post.
Sometimes I honestly could care less if I made mistakes the first time through and I'll just correct them later, but I get excited easily x3.
Sometimes I honestly could care less if I made mistakes the first time through and I'll just correct them later, but I get excited easily x3.
Do. I. Ever. Know. What. You. Mean.
Now I hate to admit this, because it is going to sound awfully egotistical. But... I have the honest feeling that I am one of those writers who gets something right the first time. BUT; mostly only with short stories of no more than a couple of pages long. I think there are several explanations for this; as I mentioned in a comment to one of your earlier articles; English is not my native language. It may flow as easily for me as my native language, but it still is a foreign language for me, so I have to in fact really think about what I am writing when I am writing it.
Secondly, I seem to be blessed with an inexplicable knack for both language, and proofreading. Indeed, when I write, and especially when I have been hit by that blessed burst of inspiration that makes whole chapters just flow from my fingers, I make mistakes. Lots of them. Missed words, typos, the works. A re-read makes me pick out those mistakes, but not all at once; I can re-read a story four, five times, and still find little flaws in spelling or punctuation marks that I missed in the previous re-reads. That is why it's so good to have other people proofread your work; they can look it with very different eyes, they don't have all the sentences you wrote in their mind so they are less prone to overlook tiny flaws in those sentences.
Thirdly, I am obsessed with detail and perfection (I blame that on my being a cat =~.^=). So, whenever I write something, I always strive to get it damn well right the first time out.
Again, however; me getting something as good as perfect the first time out only counts for my short stories, that span no more than between two and ten pages. And even those need at least one proofread before I upload them here. And darned it if ain't true; after uploading and reading through my story when it shows in white text on a dark grey background as it does here on FA, as opposed to black text on a white background as it does in my Word, I still spot small typographical errors. So, well... so much for getting something perfect the first time out, I guess =~.^= But that's just what I call 'beauty mistakes'; a missed letter or word, a small typo or missed punctuation mark, simply from typing too fast (and from because I'm a hunt-and-pecker; I use only a few fingers of each hand and have to look at my keyboard instead of the screen to hit all the right keys; I can't 'blind-type').
For my novel-length works, of which I certainly have a good couple sitting on my external hard drive, I do very much agree with what you said here. I have often found myself going back to one of my longer stories that I haven't looked at in months, re-reading it to get a feel for it again, and going "wait a second, this ain't right..."
So yes, I am in full agreement with this article! For those writers who are working on multi-chapter novels, it's impossible to get it right the first time, and re-writes are almost always needed. You need proofreaders and critics, because they are a very valuable help in spotting the things you can't see yourself in your own work. Kudos for telling us that, because there are still too many hobby writers and amateur writers who miss this so very important point! =^_^=
Now I hate to admit this, because it is going to sound awfully egotistical. But... I have the honest feeling that I am one of those writers who gets something right the first time. BUT; mostly only with short stories of no more than a couple of pages long. I think there are several explanations for this; as I mentioned in a comment to one of your earlier articles; English is not my native language. It may flow as easily for me as my native language, but it still is a foreign language for me, so I have to in fact really think about what I am writing when I am writing it.
Secondly, I seem to be blessed with an inexplicable knack for both language, and proofreading. Indeed, when I write, and especially when I have been hit by that blessed burst of inspiration that makes whole chapters just flow from my fingers, I make mistakes. Lots of them. Missed words, typos, the works. A re-read makes me pick out those mistakes, but not all at once; I can re-read a story four, five times, and still find little flaws in spelling or punctuation marks that I missed in the previous re-reads. That is why it's so good to have other people proofread your work; they can look it with very different eyes, they don't have all the sentences you wrote in their mind so they are less prone to overlook tiny flaws in those sentences.
Thirdly, I am obsessed with detail and perfection (I blame that on my being a cat =~.^=). So, whenever I write something, I always strive to get it damn well right the first time out.
Again, however; me getting something as good as perfect the first time out only counts for my short stories, that span no more than between two and ten pages. And even those need at least one proofread before I upload them here. And darned it if ain't true; after uploading and reading through my story when it shows in white text on a dark grey background as it does here on FA, as opposed to black text on a white background as it does in my Word, I still spot small typographical errors. So, well... so much for getting something perfect the first time out, I guess =~.^= But that's just what I call 'beauty mistakes'; a missed letter or word, a small typo or missed punctuation mark, simply from typing too fast (and from because I'm a hunt-and-pecker; I use only a few fingers of each hand and have to look at my keyboard instead of the screen to hit all the right keys; I can't 'blind-type').
For my novel-length works, of which I certainly have a good couple sitting on my external hard drive, I do very much agree with what you said here. I have often found myself going back to one of my longer stories that I haven't looked at in months, re-reading it to get a feel for it again, and going "wait a second, this ain't right..."
So yes, I am in full agreement with this article! For those writers who are working on multi-chapter novels, it's impossible to get it right the first time, and re-writes are almost always needed. You need proofreaders and critics, because they are a very valuable help in spotting the things you can't see yourself in your own work. Kudos for telling us that, because there are still too many hobby writers and amateur writers who miss this so very important point! =^_^=
I know that personally, I don't get my short stories right on the first go. *laughs* But depending on what I've written it for, I don't particularly mind much. For his birthday, I wrote my wolf a special little story just for him, that I haven't shown anyone else. It went through about six revisions before I finally declared it finished. And novel length pieces... whew! I've got some of them in the draw right now, out of sight and out of mind, percolating. I know when I go back to them, I'm going to tear them to SHREDS! And it's going to be glorious, heh heh.
Glad to hear someone else feels the same way about this revision issue as me; I was concerned for a while that I might be mad! *laughs* Hopefully you can continue to enjoy my guides as I go forward!
Faora
Glad to hear someone else feels the same way about this revision issue as me; I was concerned for a while that I might be mad! *laughs* Hopefully you can continue to enjoy my guides as I go forward!
Faora
Oh yes, it certainly depends on what the story is for. The shorties I have started writing since January last year, I started doing because I started participating in the weekly writing exercize called the Thursday Prompts as hosted by 
poetigress here on FA, and they are just meant to get your writing muscles flexed; however I found them growing in size and becoming more established little works as I did them more often, which is a big step forwards for me because I always had big troubles with writing shorties. So many new ideas would always sprout from what I was writing at the time that the short stories just kept growing and growing... and growing. But since these Thursday Prompt exercizes focus on just one little topic each week, it's become much easier for me, through the practice it gives me, to actually keep a story short, and still complete. And because they are just meant as an exercize, they don't even need to be perfect, so I can just punch them out in a short time, proofread them once for typos, and upload them. When it comes to stories that are more personal, or meant as gifts like you mentioned, then I definitely spend a lot more effort on them to make sure they are much more perfect =^_^=
A lot of the longer story projects that are collecting virtual dust on my external hard drive, I know of will never flourish into fully fledged stories of their own. Some are too obvious derivations of existing literature or movies, just written for the heck of it. But it will be a lot of fun to rip them apart and use the pieces to enhance other stories of mine =~.^= And my mate certainly gave me a good incentive to do some serious revision to my largest main project, because I started out writing that with another friend of mine, and hers, who has since sadly been forced to leave the fandom due to personal problems, but the first nine or so chapters were centering around his and my character, and were already in the 'finished' stage; now the character my friend created has been transferred to me, and the story will still hold a leading role for that character, but my mate's character has come into play as well as being the new lead character to play opposite my own character, and that means there is definitely a lot of highly necessary revision in store for those first nine chapters.
*laughs*
I don't know if I should look forward to that or dread it... time will tell. But I guess it's better to approach it with a positive attitude and have fun with the revision =~.^=
poetigress here on FA, and they are just meant to get your writing muscles flexed; however I found them growing in size and becoming more established little works as I did them more often, which is a big step forwards for me because I always had big troubles with writing shorties. So many new ideas would always sprout from what I was writing at the time that the short stories just kept growing and growing... and growing. But since these Thursday Prompt exercizes focus on just one little topic each week, it's become much easier for me, through the practice it gives me, to actually keep a story short, and still complete. And because they are just meant as an exercize, they don't even need to be perfect, so I can just punch them out in a short time, proofread them once for typos, and upload them. When it comes to stories that are more personal, or meant as gifts like you mentioned, then I definitely spend a lot more effort on them to make sure they are much more perfect =^_^=A lot of the longer story projects that are collecting virtual dust on my external hard drive, I know of will never flourish into fully fledged stories of their own. Some are too obvious derivations of existing literature or movies, just written for the heck of it. But it will be a lot of fun to rip them apart and use the pieces to enhance other stories of mine =~.^= And my mate certainly gave me a good incentive to do some serious revision to my largest main project, because I started out writing that with another friend of mine, and hers, who has since sadly been forced to leave the fandom due to personal problems, but the first nine or so chapters were centering around his and my character, and were already in the 'finished' stage; now the character my friend created has been transferred to me, and the story will still hold a leading role for that character, but my mate's character has come into play as well as being the new lead character to play opposite my own character, and that means there is definitely a lot of highly necessary revision in store for those first nine chapters.
*laughs*
I don't know if I should look forward to that or dread it... time will tell. But I guess it's better to approach it with a positive attitude and have fun with the revision =~.^=
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