Randomness
Dec. 29th, 2006 09:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
loracsWhat motivates a writer? I’m thinking primarily of fiction writers. Does one believe they have something so unique to say, it must be recorded?
Is the motivation different when payment is involved? I’ve heard tales of the pulp writers of the last century, when paid by the word, padding, when possible, with long expository paragraphs. I’m reminded of my school days and the assignments with a required word length. Oh how I loved to put two sentences together with that wonderful little preposition “and” – it was got me one word closer to my goal. And never let the title speak for itself, always repeat it in the first sentence. My other trick when I was a little short, go back over the piece and find places where I could add a question at the beginning of a paragraph. “So exactly how did I end up in the apple tree on that hot summer day, you might ask?” That’s good for 19 MORE words.
This word count thing isn’t where my thoughts started this morning, but there you have it, my brain at work. And since I’m at work, I guess I should be working. Now, there is a unique idea. 8-)
Is the motivation different when payment is involved? I’ve heard tales of the pulp writers of the last century, when paid by the word, padding, when possible, with long expository paragraphs. I’m reminded of my school days and the assignments with a required word length. Oh how I loved to put two sentences together with that wonderful little preposition “and” – it was got me one word closer to my goal. And never let the title speak for itself, always repeat it in the first sentence. My other trick when I was a little short, go back over the piece and find places where I could add a question at the beginning of a paragraph. “So exactly how did I end up in the apple tree on that hot summer day, you might ask?” That’s good for 19 MORE words.
This word count thing isn’t where my thoughts started this morning, but there you have it, my brain at work. And since I’m at work, I guess I should be working. Now, there is a unique idea. 8-)
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no subject
Date: 2006-12-29 10:53 pm (UTC)The inspirational role of the tools in music seems to be pretty widely acknowledged -- it's something that manufacturers really advertise and reviewers talk about in product reviews. I'm not sure what makes it so different in that respect. I suppose it's true of sculpture as well, where it's well-known that you sometimes just start working away at the material and the material suggests the project.