The Kind Of Writer I Am
Prompt from Pens Fatales: I am the kind of writer who...
I'm the kind of writer who plans and plots. Research, pictures, facts, everything needs to be right, and everything needs to be organised ahead of time. Whether it gets used is another matter entirely, but I can't start without my security blanket of information. My story file is crammed with pictures of the European Lynx, the street address of the CERN particle accelerator, an actor who could play my bad guy perfectly, and lists of names so there can never be three characters whose names start with a C.
I love revision and tweaking. I love the efficient turn of phrase, the perfect word picture, the plot twist you weren't expecting because I wasn't expecting it when I started. The first draft is mud and sticks, revisions shape it into a place to live. But where to stop revising? That's a hard question to answer. I've learned to beware of the golden paragraphs that sing when you write them. When you go back, they're singing just a shade out of tune for this story. They'll never fit in anywhere else but they just don't belong here. They have to go. I'll save them for a while, until the gold tarnishes and you see the brass underneath.
I don't much like slogging through a first draft when the magic has gone and the muse called in sick and the cat barfed on the rug right when you're about to get started. But I do it anyway, because even though you can't polish a turd, you have to have something written to declare it a turd in the first place. A turd is better than nothing at all. Sometimes the muse turns up late and it all comes together anyway.
I have one love: sci-fi. Tried to write chick lit once, and everyone who read it looked at me and said "You know I'm here for you, right?". Never again. Near future sci-fi is best, where you change one small thing and see how the world changes with it.