A writing question

[kronette.livejournal.com]

As you're writing, does anyone else have trouble reading their story as if you had no knowledge of it? I keep getting stuck because I'll have whole passages written, then realize I haven't explained or described anything because it was crystal clear in my head. I (sometimes) know the outcome of the story when I'm working on the beginning, so I have the endgame in my head as I'm writing, but that doesn't always translate into actual descriptive words.

Anyone else have this problem, or am I just an overly visual person trying to relay what I see in my head onto (virtual) paper?

Comments

[rosecathy1.livejournal.com]

I think I have something similar. Sometimes my writing gets very dialogue-heavy because I tend to play the scenes in my head as if they're being filmed, so I don't always see the need to add all the "he said"s, gestures, facial expressions and whatnot until it's too late. Some of my stories definitely suffer from this and the urge to edit them is strong, but then I'd end up rewriting huge chunks.

[kronette.livejournal.com]

I've got a 20 page story with 8 pages of cut passages at the bottom, because it didn't work or I thought of something better. That's how I've always written. I don't like cutting some stuff, because it's a beautiful phrase or amazing line, but I'll keep them and see if I can't work them into another story in the future.

For one of my Highlander stories in a zine, the editors didn't like some of the phrasing, so I chose to rewrite it...and then I had to fix something later on in the story...and I ended up writing a completely different ending where Duncan and Methos got together, instead of Methos killing Duncan (I kept both versions of the story). That's why I can't post a part 1 until I know I'm completely done with a story. I may have a flash of inspiration at the end, but need to change things at the beginning to make it work.