Dorothy J Heydt
12-19-2007, 03:27 PM
In article <1i9dvq8.2np9gf1eq4yeaN%zeborah@gmail.com>,
Zeborah <zeborah@gmail.com> wrote:
>Where are you on a scale of "Must plan everything before writing
>anything!" to "Must not plan anything or won't be able to write a
>word!"?
I'm not sure I have a fixed point on that scale. IIRC I've
started with a beginning, and gone on with that for a bit, while
trying to figure out where the ending is, and once I decided on
the ending, I could chug along till I got there. I seem to
recall using the metaphor of the dozen or so guys lined up, each
holding a bit of the boa constrictor so it can have its annual
picture taken (there was a cartoon, Charles Addams maybe? where
the head zookeeper is saying to a disconsolate employee, "There,
there, Smith, with normal growth you'll be in there next year")
-- it was necessary to pin down not only the boa's head, but its
tailtip, and once that was achieved, the other guys could move in
and grab the rest of it.
Of the five, no actually it's six, heads-without-bodies I have
sitting on the back burner of the computer (I counted 'em up last
night), some have tails, some don't. Some have amorphous lumps of
body hanging out there somewhere in the Grand Peut-Etre, some have
only vague approximations ("Gee, if the date were 999 AD, I could
send them to Otto's court, but that would mean pinning it down to
a real time/place, not just generalized EFP"). I would like to
think that if I could finish 'em they'd be readable, but even
then I have no assurance they'd be salable.
And yes, dammit, being salable MATTERS. Without that, I'm no
better than wossname who was pushing the Attack of the Rockoids.
Dorothy J. Heydt
Albany, California
djheydt@kithrup.com
Zeborah <zeborah@gmail.com> wrote:
>Where are you on a scale of "Must plan everything before writing
>anything!" to "Must not plan anything or won't be able to write a
>word!"?
I'm not sure I have a fixed point on that scale. IIRC I've
started with a beginning, and gone on with that for a bit, while
trying to figure out where the ending is, and once I decided on
the ending, I could chug along till I got there. I seem to
recall using the metaphor of the dozen or so guys lined up, each
holding a bit of the boa constrictor so it can have its annual
picture taken (there was a cartoon, Charles Addams maybe? where
the head zookeeper is saying to a disconsolate employee, "There,
there, Smith, with normal growth you'll be in there next year")
-- it was necessary to pin down not only the boa's head, but its
tailtip, and once that was achieved, the other guys could move in
and grab the rest of it.
Of the five, no actually it's six, heads-without-bodies I have
sitting on the back burner of the computer (I counted 'em up last
night), some have tails, some don't. Some have amorphous lumps of
body hanging out there somewhere in the Grand Peut-Etre, some have
only vague approximations ("Gee, if the date were 999 AD, I could
send them to Otto's court, but that would mean pinning it down to
a real time/place, not just generalized EFP"). I would like to
think that if I could finish 'em they'd be readable, but even
then I have no assurance they'd be salable.
And yes, dammit, being salable MATTERS. Without that, I'm no
better than wossname who was pushing the Attack of the Rockoids.
Dorothy J. Heydt
Albany, California
djheydt@kithrup.com