A writer's advice

[vwl]

I?ve read that you write, as you put it, like ?a holy fool,? not censoring yourself, and then you edit yourself like ?a ravening pit bull.?

I wish that wasn?t my process, but it seems to be. Cutting is always good, you can always cut more. In order to fully imagine the lives, you have to imagine the characters brushing their teeth, but you don?t have to describe them brushing their teeth. ? Wall Street Journal interview of author Marina Endicott, April 2, 2010

[Merkin]

Ah, but if it is someone sharing a toothbrush with someone else, it would be worth noting.

James

[EleCivil]

I?ve read that you write, as you put it, like ?a holy fool,? not censoring yourself, and then you edit yourself like ?a ravening pit bull.?

I wish that wasn?t my process, but it seems to be. Cutting is always good, you can always cut more. In order to fully imagine the lives, you have to imagine the characters brushing their teeth, but you don?t have to describe them brushing their teeth. ? Wall Street Journal interview of author Marina Endicott, April 2, 2010

YES!

Yes, yes, yes!

Great advice.

Before I start writing a story, I don't just picture the character as they are during the story - I think about what they were like years before the story, and what they'll be doing years later. Knowing "This kid is going to grow up to be a marketing executive" or "This guy wanted to be Spiderman when he was a kid" helps me flesh out the characters, even if those ideas never make it to the final text.

I also tend to write a bunch of scenes that never make it to the final cut of the story, but which I still think of as "cannon" - I don't include the scene in which one character notices that the other always rushes through her homework on the bus ride to school, but in my mind and as I'm writing, I still think of the character doing just that. It makes me feel like I know that character a little better.

Coincidentally, the first scene I wrote for Laika involved two characters brushing their teeth. Heh.