When I was about 14ish, I started writing my first book. I finished it sometime in high school. The story, I think, it still solid and a lot of fun. But when I looked at it (as I'm now 27 and have a Bachelor's in English and MA in Writing Popular Fiction), I realized just how AWFUL the writing is. Hence, it's revising time. Personally, I hate revising, but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do, ya know?
As I go through the manuscript, I've noticed other things as well. I feel it may be fun to share them with you.
On insults thrown by bad guys and good guys:
Teen self: ...I don't really like these. Oh well.
Current self: ...I don't really like these. *Google*
On battle plans:
Teen self: This is awesome!
Current self: Wtf? This doesn't make any sense!
On numbers:
Teen self: This is will be a big battle.
Current self: Huh. I thought it was smaller than that.
On POV:
Teen self: Now readers can see what everyone is doing!
Current self: What the hell is going on?
On certain descriptions:
Teen self: La la la la....
Current self: I kinda wish I was George R.R. Martin for the clothes. And what the hell side of the planet does the sun rise on?
On genre:
Teen self: This will be adult fantasy, but I'll write it so everyone can read it!
Current self: ...Is this supposed to be teen fantasy? Hmm. This needs more violence.
On names:
Teen self: I'll call that group XX. And I hate that guy's name, but I'll deal with it for now.
Current self: Ohmy...that is so cliche. I'll call that group YY. There. That's more badass. And I still hate that guy's name, but I still don't know what to change it to.
On my dragon:
Teen self: I love my dragon.
Current self: I love my dragon.
On killing your darlings:
Teen self: What's that mean?
Current self: Oh good. I totally do that.
2 comments:
I wouldn't want to read the stuff I came out with when I was 14; it'd probably be terrible. It would basically be like reading what happened in the Dungeond & Dragons games we played at the time.
Haha. You know, up until that point, I was actually trying to write like R.L. Stine (NOT Goosebumps - I was into Fear Street). I never played D&D, but I managed to rediscover my love of fantasy and realized that was what I wanted to write.
Not to say that it doesn't have it's fair share of cliches - which I'm weeding out as I revise, of course.
Post a Comment