A writing observation

One thing that is extremely important to me in my writing is... I don't even know if there's an 'official' term for this... 'rhythm'? 'Sound'? 'Flow'? I spend a lot of time listening to what I write - rereading sentences and paragraphs and just listening to them, not for aspects of meaning but for things like... I dunno... sound, or sequencing, maybe? The sequence of long and short sentences and phrases; the pauses caused by commas, semicolons, full stops. I can spend months deliberating on the placing of a comma. I've just removed an 'and' from a sentence, purely for 'rhythm' reasons, for what feels like the hundredth time. I'll probably add it back in tomorrow, or even later today. And then maybe remove it again. And add it back in. Until I've finally figured out whether it should be there or not.

I never really *decided* that this was the way I wanted to go about writing. I just can't seem to do it any other way. I read a paragraph I've written and I just *know*, sometimes, often, that it doesn't 'flow' as it should. And that's when the endless editing and rewriting begins; that, perhaps more than coming up with the actual 'meat' of a story, is what's taking me so frelling long. A lot of the last year out of the three years I spent working on the barely eight pages of Normal was spent on problems like that.

Likewise, when writing something new, I often know the 'rhythmic structure' of a sentence long before I know what that sentence will say. That is to say, I know "the next sentence needs to be long, and read fast and a little breathless", for example. It can be very, very difficult to find the appropriate 'content' for the predetermined 'shape' of a sentence. A lot of my difficulty with Möglichkeitssinn right now is of that sort. Most of it just doesn't read right yet - purely in terms of sound/rhythm/whatever you want to call it.

My problem with the first sentence of 68 Wives is related to this. I often get fixated on certain rhythmic structures for certain parts of my writing, and once I've got the idea of what a sentence should sound like lodged firmly in my head, it's hard to dislodge it again. This is what's happened to me with the first sentence of 68 Wives. The sentence doesn't make sense in its current form, but I can't imagine it *sounding* any different; and that, of course, makes it very difficult to change the content of the sentence, because any new version will also *sound* different. This whole complex of issues is also one of the things that made it impossible for me to rewrite Epilogue. Epilogue has a voice problem, and voice is created by variations in rhythm etc., among other things. (I've recently put that story back online in its old form, because I'm thoroughly stumped as to how to improve it, although it really is a shame to leave it in its present state. It could be really good; currently, though, it's just a good idea that's been very badly executed.)

Straight from the workshop:

( This is the beginning, and it also happens to be the part that is closest to what I want it to be, although doubtlessly this is still far from the final version. I made some fairly extensive changes today, and may hate - and reverse - most of them tomorrow. All of the rest of the fic is even more of a mess yet. )

***

( And, just for kicks, here's the same again with all the parts which were changed today marked red. Of course, this is not the first time I've changed stuff in this section. )

Gah. Still needs a lot of work.

P.S.: Yes, that's my hands and fingers fetish at work there. :D

Thanks to catching up with dunkle_feuer's LJ...

I found this:

http://www.journalfen.net/community/fandom_wank/1087998.html

I just love it. Here "wächst zusammen, was zusammengehört" :D - "old" fandom and "new" fandom, united in wank. I'm awed that the wank isn't dead yet, despite being sixty years old. Not surprised, mind you - I've been to enough "traditional" cons, and read enough fan history, to have been disabused of any notions that that kind of fandom was inherently more peaceful or what have you! *g*

What I love particularly about this, though, is that it got posted to fandom_wank in the first place. It sort of confirms the impression I've been getting over the last few years that the barriers (which have never been entirely impermeable, of course) between these two "kinds" of fandom are becoming more and more permeable. I think I first began to notice this in DW fandom, with its split between "classic Who" and "new Who" fen. At some of the "interfaces" between the two groups, people inevitably began to mingle and communicate.

Of course, even "old school" DW fandom isn't exactly identical with traditional SF fandom; there's another old, old split here between the "literary" fen and those who got into fandom via "media" fandoms... and that's still in effect, I think. But the awareness seems to be growing that we have things in common; that, in fact, we may have sprung from the same tradition.

There also seems to be a greater convergence between these two kinds of fandom and comics fandom lately, and there seems to be a great increase of media fen, and female media fen especially, branching out into comics. Multifannishness is becoming ever more inclusive (or so it seems to me, here on the sidelines.)

I think Livejournal is an important factor in this development - perhaps *the* most important factor. I remember that a few years ago most of the fannish users of LJ seemed to be fanfic-oriented media fen. But this really seems to have changed - nowadays, a lot of people who are affiliated more with "traditional" SF fandom are on LJ, too, and - even more recently, it seems to me - comics fandom has arrived here, too. And suddenly everybody gets to see everybody else's multifannish associations, and things just... open up...

November...

... will be official 'catching up with LJ' month in Hmpf country. So as not to bury my entire Real Life - which also happens to be rather busy at the moment - under the immense load of catching up I have to do I'm going to do this in the following fashion:

In November, I'm scheduled to work as a replacement for a colleague, which means I have to work twice as many shifts as I usually do. At work, there usually isn't all that much to do; most of the time I just sit around. There's also a computer with internet access. Ergo, I will do my catching up at work, all through November. As most of my shifts are only two hours long, it will take me a while, and I'll most probably not be able to finish all of it in November, but I should be able to get up to date with at least *some* LJs. This will be a huge improvement on the current state.