Monday, August 23, 2010

Monday and Muck


Photo: one of my college friends sent me this picture of your truly writing an English paper on the bus when I traveled with the LBC Chorale. Wow. I just realized that I've been writing a long, long time.

Friday I printed out what I am calling a first draft of "the train story" . . . and today I am staring at 144 pages of muck.

I usually compare producing a first draft to giving birth to a baby. It's a lot of waiting, moaning, and groaning, and the end result is pretty slimy and messy. But once you have that end result, you can clean it up, siphon the goop out of its nose, and put a diaper on it. Give it a few hours, and it may end up looking cute . . . or even beautiful.

So I do have hope for the mess on the desk in front of me. But right now it's a bizarre amalgamation of notes, bad dialogue, worse narrative, and random thoughts. (You see, I'm of the 'don't get it right, just get it down' school of novel writing.) But once I have something to work with, I can turn on the old left brain and get busy. :-)

Cleaning up twelve pages a day: that's my goal and I'm sticking to it.

Oh--right now my working title is "Brief Encounters with Strange Heroes." Whaddya think?

~~Angie

6 comments:

Virginia said...

I think it sounds like something I'd be likely to read. Which is a good thing!!

Mocha with Linda said...

No matter the title, if it says "by Angela Hunt", I'm reading it.

Love the picture and the curler in your bangs!

Anonymous said...

Wow, what a groovy chick! I dig your cool threads.
Keep writing!
Miriam

Lisa said...

Hey Angela,
I'd love to hear your thoughts on this post, from an author's perspective. To sum up...is sharing books considered piracy like with cds? I never thought of it that way.

Angela said...

I don't think that sharing books is piracy as long as you don't COPY the books-- just as music piracy is when you copy music and give (or sell) it to people who haven't paid for it.

But I do know that authors appreciate it when readers buy new books (as opposed to used books, for which the author earns nothing.). That is how we make our living. :-)

Unknown said...

Curiosity question: Is that a granny square shawl or blanket that you are wearing? Do you still have it? They are becoming very popular again, you know.