One thing I’ve seen debated on the forums lately is whether or not writers need to rewrite their drafts.

Personally, unless you’re a perfect writer, I think you do. The rough draft-especially for me-is just my fingers vomiting onto the screen. This is where I get the actual idea onto paper and the chapters, etc written. Then I let it sit for a bit, then come back and give it a rewrite to tighten it (if necessary) before going into hard copy edits.

There’s nothing evil about rewriting something. Sometimes you need to in order for the finished product to be worth a damn. Don’t be scared to do that and don’t let the artistes in forums try to tell you it’s evil. Do what you have to do to make sure your novel is at a publishable quality.

And, once again, have fun!

Music has always been a friend of mine while writing. Right now I’m listening to “Street Fighting Man” by the Rolling Stones

I was cruising the various forums a couple minutes ago while I took a break from writing and came across a thread about a novel being too short. In it, the poster was wondering if others encountered that issue and what to do about it.

As someone who has issues with being more verbose then too little, while it’s not necessarily something I am experienced with, I do know how to fix it.

When writing a novel, especially if there’s more than one character, there’s room for adding characterization, expanding on a scene or adding POV changes. Sometimes you can do all of them and make it work.

One trick I do when I want to make sure my battle scenes are large enough is that I like to show the POV from both sides of the fight. There’s always interesting characterization to be found in a situation like that. That’s one way of doing things.

Adding description to a scene is another, but this you have to be careful with or you’ll slow your pace down. So, use this one sparingly.

My big thing is to add characterization. Add scenes involving all of the people involved and you’ll not only make sure you have enough words but will give the reader a reason to root for the person you’re writing about.

Each of these can help you out a lot, and I hope sharing them will give some advice that’ll help others advance their career.

One thing about writing is that it is hard and a person needs a tough skin to survive, but there’s one more thing too: having fun.

If you don’t truly enjoy what you’re doing, and have fun at it, then it becomes a chore and you become miserable after that. Try to have fun while you’re writing, ok?

I don’t normally go on a post that’s a pure rant like this one is, but I feel the need to vent. On one of the writing forums is a wannabe intellectual who has diarrhea of the fingers. Today he’s trying to tell folks chapters have
to be a certain length.

What a pile of complete bullshit!

Chapters in a novel are as long as they need to be! While I tend to write 3-5k chapters, that doesn’t mean every book needs ones that big. Some are as long as one word, one sentence or one paragraph. But to tell someone they have to be a certain length not only forces a new writer into a mold they don’t need to be in but it can hurt them in the long run.

Frankly, I get so damn tired of listening to the bullshit that comes from so many artistes who will never be published in their lives. All they want to do is tell folks how to be ‘artists’ but it pushes new and aspiring authors into going in a direction that’s not commercially viable.

If you sit back and read other novels, which I challenge folks to do, you’ll find that each writer’s chapters are a different length. There’s no hard and set rule about it!

God, I’m so tired of seeing such stupid shit pushed upon aspiring writers as a rule.