(no subject)

[igenlode]

*Fanfic writer posts a 3,000-word chapter* Okay, this literally took me three hours, but I'm satisfied with the result.

Seriously? You vomited out porn at a rate of thousand words an hour (very very obviously completely unchecked and unrevised) and you're complaining about how long it took -- and satisfied with a result that looks like something written by someone with English as a distant second language?

(Or maybe I'm just jealous because I was feeling pleased with myself for having written a whole three hundred words on a two-hour walk today...)

Comments

[erimia]

I'm not sure that the author is complaining that it took so long - if anything I thought they are acknowledging that it was written quickly and isn't polished.

[igenlode]

It's phrasing I usually see when teenagers are complaining/boasting about how much sheer labour went into achieving their latest magnum opus (as opposed to "Okay, I did this in only ten minutes so it may not be up to much") -- but looking at the work to which this one was supposedly a sequel I think the author actually *is* writing in English as a second language, in which case all bets are off as to precise nuances of usage, and you may well be right.

("She gets discouraged, one of the few escapes from her is to workout but now she can't, but that's the least of it, she can't sing")

[darlingdeathbird]

There are hares and there are tortoises, that's for sure... But being a tortoise myself, and knowing a few hares, I see that they often end up with work that they're not happy with. Also, work that really isn't so meaningful or cohesive, either. It lacks what a tortoise takes so much times putting in. So I guess what I mean to say is there's no reason to be jealous!

[igenlode]

I'm definitely a tortoise; I can't do the whole 'write the first draft quickly and badly and then go back and rewrite it, and then scrap the whole thing and rewrite it again before editing it' that seems to be the accepted wisdom. I didn't grow up writing that way, and I'm too old to change.

I only get one basic manuscript draft, and it has to be right in all but minor details before it can progress. Once it's done, it's supposed to be ready to go, subject to basic editing and rereading (e.g. rewording for clarity or to avoid phrases that sound clumsy, or have been echoed repeatedly).

But of late I can't claim that my slow progress has been due to finalising every paragraph as I go; it's just finding the whole process difficult and uninspiring. (And apparently I'm perfectly capable of rewriting *other* people's work, or coming up with demonstration pieces on the spur of the moment to illustrate a particular point, so it's not the ability but the enthusiasm that's lacking.)