Re:“Write Drunk, Edit Sober” Is Bad Advice
by pmoriarty on Friday December 07, 2018 @12:51PM
(#18629825)
"Imagine a coder or engineer following this recommendation: no plan, no structure, just throwing ideas willy-nilly."
The only thing writers have in common is that they each have their own way of working.
Some plot meticulously, others don't plot at all. Some want to know where they're going, others prefer discovery and surprise.
Stephen King does not plot because he finds it boring. He does not want to know what's going to happen.
Here's Flannery O'Connor:
"When I started writing that story, I didn't know there was going to be a Ph.D. with a wooden leg in it. I merely found myself one morning writing a description of two women I knew something about, and before I realized it, I had equipped one of them with a daughter with a wooden leg. I brought in the Bible salesman, but I had no idea what I was going to do with him. I didn't know he was going to steal that wooden leg until ten or twelve lines before he did it, but when I found out that this was what was going to happen, I realized it was inevitable."
The only thing writers have in common is that they each have their own way of working.
Some plot meticulously, others don't plot at all. Some want to know where they're going, others prefer discovery and surprise.
Stephen King does not plot because he finds it boring. He does not want to know what's going to happen.
Here's Flannery O'Connor:
"When I started writing that story, I didn't know there was going to be a Ph.D. with a wooden leg in it. I merely found myself one morning writing a description of two women I knew something about, and before I realized it, I had equipped one of them with a daughter with a wooden leg. I brought in the Bible salesman, but I had no idea what I was going to do with him. I didn't know he was going to steal that wooden leg until ten or twelve lines before he did it, but when I found out that this was what was going to happen, I realized it was inevitable."
https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/01/01/21/s...