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Things Authors Say
May. 16th, 2008 12:52 amI meant to post this when I first saw it, five days ago, on Neil's journal, but it's only now when I should be tucking myself into bed to yawn sleepily (but with great delight) at Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin that I think to do so:
"The second draft is where the fun is. In a first draft, you get to explode. The objective (at least for me) is to get it down on paper, somehow. Battle through the laziness and the not-enough-time and the this-is-rubbish and everything else, and just get it written. Whatever it takes. The second draft is where you go and gather together the fragments of the explosion and figure out what it is you did, and make it look like that was what you always meant to do."
It's incredibly inspiring to know that Mr. Gaiman goes through the exact same things I do when we sit down in front of that blank, virgin page. To hear him say this frees me in some ways.
"The second draft is where the fun is. In a first draft, you get to explode. The objective (at least for me) is to get it down on paper, somehow. Battle through the laziness and the not-enough-time and the this-is-rubbish and everything else, and just get it written. Whatever it takes. The second draft is where you go and gather together the fragments of the explosion and figure out what it is you did, and make it look like that was what you always meant to do."
It's incredibly inspiring to know that Mr. Gaiman goes through the exact same things I do when we sit down in front of that blank, virgin page. To hear him say this frees me in some ways.