04-30-2003, 10:48 PM | #21 |
Deus Ex Machina
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: Seattle
Posts: 1,951
|
Well... I can swoop when I need to but only if I've already bashed it out in my head which usually occurs when I'm in bed and half-asleep. Most of the time though I'm a basher. I wonder... could the style have something to do with who our favorite writers are? I know that I for one like to read and re-read books that I like and then pick out the things I like about that writer's style. The end result is a mish mash of all sorts of styles that works well for me. Does anyone else do this? Does any one else suspect that being a fan of Tolkien might contribute to any perfectionest or 'basher' tendencies we might might have?
__________________
"5. Plain Rings with RUNES on the inside. Avoid these like the PLAGUE.-Diana Wynne Jones Tough Guide To FantasyLand ...it's not much of a show if somebody doesn't suffer, and preferably at length. Suffering is beautiful in any case, and so is anguish; but as for loathing, and bitterness... I don't think they belong on the stage at all. - Isabella, I Gelosi |
05-12-2003, 04:17 AM | #22 | ||
Co-President of Entmoot
Super Moderator Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Canada
Posts: 8,397
|
It's possible Tolkien swooped and revised heavily.
I like to swoop because I enjoy editing. I end up being a basher it I don't get on a good train of thought. Sometimes I write out the key plot points so I can keep advancing.
__________________
"I can add some more, if you'd like it. Calling your Chief Names, Wishing to Punch his Pimply Face, and Thinking you Shirriffs look a lot of Tom-fools." - Sam Gamgee, p. 340, Return of the King Quote:
Quote:
|
||
05-12-2003, 04:26 PM | #23 |
Enting
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina
Posts: 73
|
I'm definitely a basher. I'm an extremely slow writer, but I just can't move on to the next paragraph until the current one is the best I can do.
I even tried to swoop from time to time, but it never works for me. I can't just write the main ideas and correct them later; no, I need to find THE word that goes in that place. *sigh*
__________________
"...So the essential Quest started at once. But I met a lot of things on the way that astonished me. Tom Bombadil I knew already; but I had never been to Bree. Strider sitting in the corner at the inn was a shock, and I had no more idea who he was than had Frodo. The Mines of Moria had been a mere name; and of Lothlórien no word had reached my mortal ears till I came there. Far away I knew there were the Horse-lords on the confines of an ancient Kingdom of Men, but Fangorn Forest was an unforeseen adventure." ~ J. R. R. Tolkien |
05-14-2003, 06:28 AM | #24 |
Alcoholic Villain-Fancying Elf Pirate
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Lyonesse
Posts: 4,547
|
I am definitely very much a swooper, my only problem is it takes a lot a lot of willpower to make myself go back and edit. Sure, I get plenty of ideas for editing and changing, but because I write so quickly, it seems such a daunting task and I get overwhelmed. Alas. And my current project is in serious need of a major re-write. More alas.
__________________
Eruviel Greenleaf in a past life. "Whoever has come to understand the world has found only a corpse, and whoever has found a corpse is superior to the world." -The Gospel of Thomas SQUAWK! |
05-14-2003, 08:30 AM | #25 |
Possessive Villain Fancier
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: On my ship, riding the waves YARR!
Posts: 2,008
|
Swooper. Majorly.
I can spew entire 27 page chapters in a day, and then ignore it for a week, and then revise it all again. This only works if I have all my character outlines, maps and backstory pages around me or in another window, though, or else I get distracted, lose the thread... Swooping works for me though, but on reaching the final full stop at the end of my novel I left it for a few months, and am now into the revising, and this is taking up the time. Damn chapter three to hell, it won't behave.
__________________
My soul is painted like the wings of butterflies, Fairytales of yesterday will grow but never die, I can fly - my friends. XK |
05-14-2003, 04:11 PM | #26 |
Cardboard Harp of Gondor Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: IM IN UR POSTZ, EDITIN' UR WURDZ
Posts: 6,433
|
swooper. I'll sit down for a few hours and slap out a short story , then go back the next day or so and refine it a bit.
|
05-14-2003, 07:52 PM | #27 |
Elf Lord
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Slow down and I sail on the river, slow down and I walk to the hill
Posts: 2,389
|
I'm a bit of both, but when I get past my writer's block I'm usually a swooper. I find that it works better for me, because if I use the basher style I'll get stuck on a certain word or sentence and concentrate too much on that, thus forgetting important plot points and characterization that is zooming through my head very quickly.
__________________
“The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.” –Bertrand Russell |
05-16-2003, 08:41 AM | #28 |
The Elven Queen Of All Pyros
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Im like a little bug stuck in the lamp...never going anywhere
Posts: 795
|
well....i am a "swooper" when i am writing a piece...usually the words just flow..but then between pieces and good ideas im more like a "basher"
__________________
Would you judge my future based on what i did in the past? Procrastinators Unite!!!.....tomorrrow.... Kids in backseats cause accidents...accidents in backseats cause kids As long as there are tests..there will be prayers in school |
05-16-2003, 11:43 AM | #29 |
Dúnedain Ranger of the North
Join Date: Aug 2000
Location: The Ruins of Arnor
Posts: 892
|
I would have to say I do my best writing as a 'Swooper', though I have periods of 'Bashing'. The Bashing periods are where I work out conflicts in storyline and plot to get them to meld, whereas when I Swoop, I lay down whole sections of the story in its various times.
__________________
"I am an outlaw, I was born an outlaw's son. The highway is my legacy, on the highway I will run." |
05-16-2003, 02:39 PM | #30 |
Domesticated Swing Babe
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Reality
Posts: 5,340
|
Swooping all the way! I wish I could speed type cause I worry I won't get it all down fast enough before muddling, or forgeting. I should "talk it" into a tape recorder! I really enjoy the editing. Eliminating useless sentences and words is very fullfilling. I have to watch that I don't go to far when I'm on the computer. Picking paragraphs is annoying to me. The editor at the paper would do it for me, to suit the copy needs, and that suited me just fine!
__________________
Happy Atheist Go Democrats! |
05-20-2003, 10:41 AM | #31 |
Fair Dinkum
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Houston, TX
Posts: 2,319
|
Undoubtedly a basher. I cannot write anything without it being perfect. Then, I edit it viciously afterwards. Take for instance the time when my friend and I had to write something for History. We had to work together but I basically kept twisting everything she said so that it was good enough.
However, I am becoming somewhere in the middle now. Very glad - it took me only a 45 min class to finish this English essay- whereas previously it would have taken me that time, and much of that night as well to perfect it. And if it's just normal writing, not for school, it still takes me ages to decide what I want to write. I hate awkward parts in my writing. |