Sunday 15 January 2017

2017 is the year of 'The Edit' !




Not sure everyone would agree with this, but I think creative writing breaks down into two very distinct stages:
  1. Free-writing (manically splurge the words and ideas from your brain to the page)
  2. Editing (turn the free-write splurge into something a human being might actually want to read)
Last year, I was definitely buried neck-deep in the first stage. The whole year was one long manic frenzy of typing. Somehow or other, I managed to produce a million words of free-writing. And before that, through a mixture of writing and plotting my fantasy series, I'd produced at least another million words.

What I'm trying to say is: I seem to have written a lot of words.

This year, 2017, I'm going to lock myself away from the world - as much as feasibly possible - and start on stage two: The Edit. I'm planning to dive headfirst into all those words, grab a handful or two, and then somehow shape those words into something readable. And then I'll do that again. And again... until I either:
  1. Turn into a gibbering puddle of Mark 
  2. Die in the attempt
  3. Produce a novel
  4. Produce several novels
  5. All of the above
So... please send love, luck, and cookies. Definitely the cookies.