TO RETIREMENT
9165 Author 2 - Writing
My favourite occupation now is writing. I begrudge any time taken away from it. It is, in many respects, a cathartic experience. It is, indeed, almost a physical pleasure.
I suppose one of the reasons for
my pleasure
now is the availability of word processors. When I first started writing, when
I was at
IBM, every draft at the time had to be typed separately, and this was a real
chore. Now it is a pleasure just changing a word or two to make it better --
without having to pound out the rest of it all over again. Indeed, my technique
now depends on rewriting almost everything I produce a number of times --
perhaps as many as ten to twenty times. This is partly because polishing makes
it better, but especially because I get sheer pleasure from doing it.
My workstation!
Even so, until recently, my first draft was done in my own handwriting. I have tried setting out various headings to provide the structure, but in general -- and most successfully -- I just sit down and write what comes into my head. Rearranging is a matter for later.
I suppose before this stage there is the stage of research. It is true that, for example, in terms of my business books I have undertaken a great deal of research. But, generally speaking, that research has been stimulated by other events; as, for example, the courses cancelled by the OU provided such an important stimulus for my main textbooks. More generally I like to sit down and write straight out of my head. Most recently, as for example here, I produce my first draft by dictating it into a hand-held recorder. That in turn connects to the Dragon software on my PC, which converts it into text. It is perhaps only 80 percent successful, and that does not so much save typing work, but it can add a certain freedom of speech. However, as in current case, this can still be something of chore. Even so it is essential to form the basis for the later writing.
I guess it is the first revision that I enjoy the most. That used to be in terms of amendments, in red ink, on my handwritten first draft. Now of our course, it is on the material that is already in the PC -- derived from the dictated material. This is the stage of which I begin to shape the material and the actual content of material quite often comes as a much of a surprise to me as it will do to the reader! It is, though, a very fulfilling process. Thereafter, I leave the material for a few days when I go back and edit it again. I do this for a number of weeks, as the final product is polished. Initially there are quite significant changes, perhaps even to the structure, but later these changes are just better ways of describing the detail.
As I have said, I found this an almost erotic pursuit. I suppose the essence of it is a form of self-congratulation; 'My God isn’t that wonderful work'! But I really do enjoy creating the word patterns, and using the words themselves, to make the words really live; so perfectly balanced that they trip off the tongue or race through the brain.
At the OU the process became even better than this. Indeed, by this stage of draft, the course team had already commented on the ideas contained in the material -- and that added an extra dimension. Then, at this stage, the material was put out to critical readers, whose job it was to polish it even further; and to suggest changes which would make it better. I am sure that many, if not most, other authors hate other people interfering with their work. I, on the other hand, love this stage since so many new ways of looking at the material enter into the equation. The final stage at the OU was the use of developmental testers. They actually did the course. The advantage of this stage was not ideas for improvement, but evidence for deletion. Almost invariably I found that the development testers found some material which was very difficult and tedious. Just as invariably, when I went back to the material I would find that I had put it in because I had a bee in my bonnet about the subject; and in reality it was irrelevant. The answer there was not rewriting but simply to remove it, since it was not serving any useful purpose.
In terms of fiction, however, creation revolves around genuinely cathartic experience. It's getting down on paper something inside me which has to come out. Indeed, it really was cathartic in terms of my first novel, set in the Bronze Age. I am unaware of where the idea came from. But I built into it all the frustrations I had to deal with from the failure of my Computerland dealership. It was a wonderful way of getting such things out of my system.
Perhaps the same was true when I had my breakdown at the OU. I eventually managed to start writing again in terms of some science-fiction short stories. The subject of these were less connected to my personal experience, but they too were cathartic.
I have never managed to get any of my fiction published, except for one story published on the Web. Indeed, Sonia Land my agent regularly dismissed my work in this direction as being a waste of my time. But, I have found the work cathartic, and that is reward enough.
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