Coffee With David

2009 has been an interesting year in and outside of my writing life. Along with many events and changing priorities outside of writing, I have also learned and tried new methods of this art. From these experiments, I have come to a conclusion that seems to work for me rather well. I really should say: “So far, so good.”

Before I talk about what I am doing, let me clearly say two things: 1. Not every method works for every writer. If you are reading this thinking I have discovered the “Writers’ Holy Grail,” use caution and remember the scene from the movie “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” when the antagonist chose poorly. 2. From what I know of myself and from discussions I have had with writers with differing levels of success in their career, stories are not always able to be written with the same method.

The current method I am employing is to write a story strictly as dialogue with very little description for the first draft. I record a little description or more direction as I go, but only enough to tell myself what is happening and what I need to fill in on a later draft. This goes against everything that I have learned about writing—but it is working. In classes and seminars, I have always been told “Write until done and then cut—cut—cut.” Here I am doing the opposite at first. I am writing, then going back and adding and adding until the piece is truly complete with all the description that is needed. THEN I am going to go after it with the editor’s “sword” and cut away the fat to get to the bone.

I have started this with a new novel and I was able to write over 17000 words in three days. I am actually close to half way in the story line. This is not many words to be so far in the story line, but remember this is only the dialogue. Once I add the description and any narrative, . ..

I will talk about this more as time goes on and see if the production keeps at this pace.

Thank you for reading and please visit www.davidalanlucas.com for information on blogs, stories , articles, and poems that I write.