Following yesterday’s post, I’ve thought about why I’m writing about writing so much so fast.
Believe me, I do enjoy literary works, well, mainstream literary. Richard Ford, John Irving, Richard Russo, Anne Tyler, Jane Smiley, Annie Proulx are among my favourite writers. I enjoy the nuances they are able to bring to their writing, their skill with language and narrative. I have written, and even published, numerous literary stories, where I’ve polished and honed the words, where I’ve edited out sections or rewritten entirely from scratch, and often I’m proud of those pieces.
That said I’m having fun just writing pulp. Now, I’m not saying my writing is especially good (the reader can judge that), but I’m focusing on the story and trusting that my writing will carry it. What I’m finding currently is that as I go I’m paying more attention to the words where before I would have thought, “Well, I can fix that later in revisions”. Part of this comes from finding over the last year that my stories seemed stronger on their first draft without too much tinkering, part comes from reading about other approaches. Dean Wesley Smith has a good post here about not revising until a story has become just white paste.
Not interested in white paste. Looking for story. That’s why I’ll be writing pulp fiction for a while yet.
