As a five-time participant (three-time winner) in National Novel Writing Month, I can tell you that silencing your inner editor is the best thing you can do for your writing. In fact, NaNoWriMo founder Chris Baty’s No Plot, No Problem has this fantastic button in the book that says, “Take My Inner Editor,” along with its partner, “Give Me Back My Inner Editor,” toward the end of the book.
Yes, during the month of November, my inner editor goes on walkabout while I agonize over putting 50,000 words in a semi-coherent fashion onto a document.
During the rest of the year, my inner editor has this bad habit of looking over my shoulder while I write (or do anything creative, actually). He reminds me that I have Syrus Truesdale out of character, or that Joey Wheeler would never say something I’ve made him say. He’s positive my darling Kazuki isn’t nearly as angsty as I portray him. (Actually, that much is true. Kaz is worse, but I don’t do angst well.) My inner editor is also hugely critical of Dead Bunny. Apparently, a combination of text and images will not actually make sense to some poor struggling math student out there. I really have to ignore him some days just to get my work done, usually by placating him, “Let me get this done, and then I’ll let you have your way with it,” or, “I don’t need it to be perfect. I need it to be out of my head.”
That second one is true. No first draft should ever be expected to be perfect. It’s the chance to write down what you’re thinking. The editing stage, where you beat your idea into something pretty, should be its own separate activity. I almost have my inner editor convinced of this. He still drops in while I’m working, though.
My inner editor is a real jerk, come to think of it. I’m glad to be rid of him every November!
Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized at 7:38 AM EDT
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Occasionally at work, I get to work with the academic writing students. For a while, in the course of my lead instructor duties, I was constantly being asked to work with these students while they were trying to map out their compare/contrast essays. In the vast majority of these cases, the student was writing about a pair of cartoons, video games, or science fiction movies, so I was really being called over to help draw information out of the student. However, it ended up leading to my helping guide the student’s map.
For me, the compare/contrast essay is about telling what specific ways two things are different, and then identifying how they are similar. For example, using one of the students’ essays as an example (and this is only on my mind at the moment because I spent too much time with one of the cartoons and the spin-off of the other cartoon this weekend. It’s fresh in my brain.), if you say that the monsters in Pokemon are carried around in Pokeballs, then you have to say something similar about the monsters in Yu-Gi-Oh. You can’t set up a good contrast if you just give random facts about both. It’s ahrd for your reader to understand why you’re comparing them at all without the specific details of what’s being contrasted.
I got to talking with a colleague of mine a couple of weeks ago, an absolutely brilliant writing teacher, and he was telling me about his views on the compare/contrast essay. He’s very traditional, and that’s his greatest strength, but in that he views the compare/contrast essay as a non-essay because it covers two topics- the two things being compared. Instead, he encourages the student to write and essay on one of the topics, with a paragraph on why the other topic isn’t like the main topic.
I got to thinking about that, and it’s an interesting approach. Given my mindset, I’m not sure how successfully I can apply that to my own teaching of that essay type, but I might have to think about how much my own style already incorporates that .
Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized at 8:02 AM EDT
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Before anyone worries, I haven’t suddenly decided to take up screenwriting. Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting was recommended to me because I’ve been working on scripts for math video tutorials and a graphic novel, and I can understand why it was recommended to me.
Through examples from the same seven movies (I now never have to watch Chinatown thanks to this book!), Syd Field covers the basic layout of a screenplay, and then offers suggestions and tips for how to develop an industry-standard screenplay. For those aspiring to sell their screenplays, there is even a chapter dedicated to doing just that!
I took a lot of notes on structure and the role of the writer in the script. Much of what Field covers can be used by writers creating just about anything. You just have to tweak bits of the paradigm to make it work. I’m already looking at how to apply some of the advice to the graphic novel script. His revising suggestions will also help me as I tackle the two oversized editing jobs sitting in my to-do list (one of which people have been asking me about, the other one should apparently go gather a pile of rejection letters).
If you write, regardless of what you write, you should thumb through this one. (Me? After I finish the three books on my shelf, I should ban myself from reading another writing book.)
Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized at 8:08 AM EDT
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