[stylist] stylist Digest, Vol 81, Issue 19

[Kerry Thompson]

Hi friends,

Bridgit, everybody's process is different. For me, writing is about the 
language. So, from the first, the words are as important as the story 
I'm telling with them. Of course, sometimes it's necessary to get the 
story germ down as quickly as possible before I forget it.

That leads me to my second point. For me, writing and rewriting aren't 
separate, distinct phases of the process. I'm a tinkerer. I continually 
reread my work in progress, pausing to substitute a better word here, to 
expand a phrase to a paragraph there where it strikes me that the 
meaning is unclear. And, as the story grows, especially with a novel, it 
sometimes becomes necessary to go back to add or alter allusions or 
whole scenes.

With short stories, too, the manuscript is dynamic. I tighten here, 
expand there, occasionally move or delete entire passages. But it's not 
a matter of Draft 1, Draft 2, Draft 3. I don't work that way and can't 
even fully understand the concept of working that way. But, as I say, 
everybody's process is different. You have to find the process that 
works for you. If producing distinct drafts and revisions works for you, 
then by all means go for it!

Like you, I learned to read print, before losing my sight. Like you, 
too, I love Nineteenth Century literature, especially Dickens. Wharton 
isn't one of my favorites, though. I prefer the Brontes. I think, 
perhaps, you and I were taught writing in different ways, from different 
aesthetic paradigms. It sounds like you're into modernism, while I'm 
more old fashioned. One way isn't right and the other wrong, they're 
just different.

Chris, LOL That's short and to the point. Very good!

Solidarity and Peace,

Kerry