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There are some problems common (or similar) to all writers, and I thought it might be an idea if any other 05 EE2 students (or earlier) would like to run through the challenges they faced in their major works, and how they overcame them.
Everyone's major work is very much a personal thing, and I do understand completely that nothing in EE2 is as simple as 1, 2, 3. Furthermore, I understand that there is only so much another person can influence another person's work (thank you illodous for this contribution)- the writer is always the gatekeeper.
That being said, some of you may be more motivated after hearing that everyone else in past years has gone through the exact same challenges. The methods of overcoming these challenges (which greatly vary depending on the individual) are not the *only* way, but they are the way *we* did it, and hopefully they will inspire you to overcome your own hurdles.
If any of the below posters (assuming someone else other than me posts) are open to have 06's pm them for advice, please state so. And remember, the EE2 forum is always open for EE2 discussion - if you have a question, feel free to ask it - you do not *only* have to post in the Bitch and Procrastination thread!![Smile :) :)](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
I'll go first.
Note - I will be constantly updating it whenever I remember stuff to add
Me human, me no remember everything at one time. Also, I have this inability to shut up, which I’m sure some of you have noticed.
Note 2: I have merged a more recent thread with the same concept into this thread. If members wish to elaborate (or even refine, if you're feeling nit-picky) their responses they are more than welcome![Smile :) :)](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
Problems and their Solutions in my short story Pieces of Me
-will post up link when I can be bothered, otherwise it's in the 2004 BOS Showcase thread.![Smile :) :)](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
Part 1 (see attachment)
Getting Started – Ideas and the initial working process up to and including first full draft
CONTENTS
- Character names
- Different voices for my different characters
- Getting too caught up in my characters and forgetting about the story
- Plot Problems
- Becoming too attached to my story
- Having good ideas but having problems putting them in
- Squishing myself into a short story writer’s perspective
- Wondering where the hell my story was going, if anywhere, Part 1
- Why can’t I move forward? What’s holding me back?
- Working on an already fragmented story in sections
Part 2
Reworking and Refining – More on the writing process and progress
Critiquing your own work
Every individual approaches this differently. Some are able to simply work on the computer screen, other people find it easier to print off a hard copy and critique with a coloured pen (or sending it to someone else to be critiqued with a coloured pen).
The vast majority of people will find that their concept doesn’t come across as clearly or consistently as they want it to be. In some situations, you might even look at something you wrote and think “This is so pathetic, and what’s even more pathetic is that I can’t see how I could make it any better”. Do NOT give up! This is what the reworking is for! No-one expects the first draft to be perfect. In fact, I have yet to hear from anyone whose first draft *was* perfect. Most people have found that general concept and character names aside, the first draft does not resemble the finished product at all. So don’t give up just yet!
Personally, I was pretty ambivalent by the time I’d finished my first full draft. I was just SO glad I’d got that far at all, and yet extremely frustrated because what I’d slaved over didn’t look anything like what I wanted it to. “Should I hand it in now as it is, or burn it up?”, I pondered. My teacher emphasised again and again that my first full draft was a base from which to work on
What I did was to print off a copy of my major work and make the margin sizes pretty big. I cut away the oversized margins (alternatively, split a page in landscape view in half), and stuck them into my journal – leaving plenty of space to right notes around the section of my story. A lot of the notes I had were things like “the rhythm of this sentence sucks. Change it!” or “I don’t like the way this is going. Replace it with something better!”
How to approach your first full reworking
Your first full reworking will likely be just as challenging as your first full draft, however, it will be quite different. Many find the first full reworking more satisfying, as they can easily see the progress of their work and how it makes the story work more cohesively. It’s a good idea to have a hard copy of your first full draft on hand for you to work off (so you don’t have to keep switching Microsoft Word windows).
Before you sally forth to do great deeds, have a moment to stop and think about your reworking. What are the most important objectives? What and where exactly are the big problems that need to be fixed, and how can I fix them? Keep all of this in mind when you rework, to ensure consistency.
For me, my goals were to make my concept and intention far clearer, and also to plant the “little seeds” of the plot way in advance so I could reduce the amount of jackhammering that went on in my first full draft. Just thinking about all the changes I had to make was mind-boggling at times (my first full draft was very sketchy, and that’s putting it nicely). It’s important not to overwhelm yourself – the changes that can happen in a reworking can be quite significant. What is important is that these changes be for the better.
There’s a beautiful line in the film Finding Forrester that says: “The first draft you write from your heart. The second you write with your head”. I loved this quote, and stuck it into my journal to look at frequently. The key is not to waste time kicking yourself for things you think are stupid, but instead, to look for the things you can improve/change for the better.
The process of reworking
Put bluntly, this is where (and how) we turn little stick-houses into works of art. It can be tedious, involving re-writing a particular section over and over again to get it right, restructuring, merging, turning it upside-down and inside-out, deconstructing, the insertion of new ideas/themes etc, and more. But the end results will be fabulous. Prepare to be amazed!
I’d printed off a few copies of my first full draft and sent them around to different people, who returned them all covered in red (or purple) pen. Working from the top, I did my best to take on board their constructive criticism (which was generally very good, although it depends *who* critiques your work). I had a couple of situations where I disagreed with what they were saying, but usually this was due to me not making my intention clear enough. The biggest comment I got from all my sources was that they didn’t really ‘get’ what I was trying to do, so fixing that was my overall reworking theme.
Since the story was fragmented way out of control, I played around with several “linking” ideas, such as motifs here and there to link the different character pieces along (which doubled as a way of sneaking in the idea that they’re not really different people at all), dream sequences etc (as well as a VERY obvious tear scene. Like, hello!!! How much more jackhammering does a reader need?!?!?!) but it got a bit fiddly. And here is where we start working outside the square.
My initial idea was to only refer to my “whole”, who had minimal or no voice in what was going on. It was obvious from my first full draft and the feedback that what I had tried to do wasn’t clear enough. Fair enough, I’ll just do it another way. I played around with anything that could work, and looked for strong methods that would support the story as a whole. The key word is playing around – I wasn’t taking it too seriously at the time, anything that worked and felt good, I left as it was. Plenty of time to refine it later, but what was important is that I had something I worked, and something I was happy with (and knew I would be happier still later down the track).
To resolve the major jackhammering (for the uninitiated, it means confusing the audience by throwing too much too quickly at a reader. So literally, jackhammering) issues going on in my major work, I worked from the top downwards. Thanks to my first full draft, I had a plot, now I just needed to make it work as a whole. I had printed out a copy of my major work and had written out notes to myself about where the important stuff had to start easing in, and where the insignificant stuff could be cleanly removed. The essential thing is for the story to work as a whole – everything I changed, I did so because it benefited the story as a whole. A bigger load on the mind, but it was a good thing - reworking with the entire story in mind ensures that there’s a lot more unity to the piece as a whole, and there are no huge “suprises” for the audience to have to gulp down without the aid of a spoon.
Wondering where the hell my story was going, if anywhere, Part 2
I remember last year, at various points of my reworking, looking at a bit and thinking “omg, where the hell is this thing going?”. Like so many other people, I had what I thought was a very clear idea of how I wanted my major work to end up like. My first full draft was an attempt at getting ‘there’, but it wasn’t coming across right. Isn’t that frustrating? I was spending too much narrative time on some scenes, and not enough time on others, which lead to imbalance and only half-conveyed ideas. More changes had to be made, not only to the direction of my major work (and how my key concepts were expressed) but in my approach to the story itself. This was one of the few times I actually listened to some of my own advice – “If it’s not working one way, try another way”. It’s never fun changing *again* after you already made big changes the last time, but sometimes it’s worth it.
Whilst I was reworking, I found my story going into a completely new direction, particularly with the inclusion of another “voice”. I was torn between trying to complete what I’d started, and running with wherever the story took me (I’m of the “a story writes itself, an author just writes it down” camp, although some of my friends disagree and they are still very good writers – we just work differently). In the end, I decided to just let it play itself out and ended up writing up a whole new tail end of my story (a good 3 000 words or so). Due to all the changes in the reworking process, the mood of my story changed, its direction changed, the reactions changed.
And you know what? It worked.
Taking Care of One’s Self – keeping sane as an ee2 student in the HSC
Juggling multiple major works
This is a bit like saying you want to build a grand architectural masterpiece within the one lifetime. And then, tilting your head to one side and thinking a second one might just look really grand sitting right next to it.
Happily, the reality of juggling multiple HSC major works is a little bit easier, but you *must* balance your time roughly equally between them.
I did Textiles and EE2 last year (although I know a girl who is going 5 major works this year – art/textiles/english extension 2/music/society and culture – crazy!). Whilst I kept english pretty much under control, textiles required a lot of almost all-nighters to get it done because I misjudged the production time.
If you haven’t done it already, draw up a realistic timeframe your major works require to be finished (and make sure you have “emergency time” planned in as well). The key word is realistic – don’t give yourself a week to get 40% of your major work done. What I did initially was count up the hours my major works required, added them together, threw in some “emergency time”, and voila. Divide this grand total by the number of weeks left till hand-in date, and then you have a very rough idea of how much work you need to do. Depending on how flexible you are, you can somewhat comfortably work around all your assessments. Mind you, the above idea was very rough – if you need to have something done by a particular time, then you must fiddle around with your timetable as needed.
Note that I mashed up my two timetables. The reason for this is that I’m not the most consistent person in the world – there were time when I’d spend days on end sewing (this includes in roll call and on the train… haha) and there were other times I’d spend writing endlessly. My theory was “so long as I’m working on *something*, it’s ok”.
-Constantly under construction. Attached files will also be updated as needed-
*Thanks to illodous for the pdf conversions![Smile :) :)](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
NB: Whilst I do not particularly like my EE2 major work these days (I’ve actually forbidden some of my friends from reading it…) I learnt a lot from the writing process. I'm proud of what I did last year, and more importantly, I'm satisfied - I don't regret a minute of it. The more you do, the more you learn. The more you learn, the more you can do, and so on.![Smile :) :)](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
Everyone's major work is very much a personal thing, and I do understand completely that nothing in EE2 is as simple as 1, 2, 3. Furthermore, I understand that there is only so much another person can influence another person's work (thank you illodous for this contribution)- the writer is always the gatekeeper.
That being said, some of you may be more motivated after hearing that everyone else in past years has gone through the exact same challenges. The methods of overcoming these challenges (which greatly vary depending on the individual) are not the *only* way, but they are the way *we* did it, and hopefully they will inspire you to overcome your own hurdles.
If any of the below posters (assuming someone else other than me posts) are open to have 06's pm them for advice, please state so. And remember, the EE2 forum is always open for EE2 discussion - if you have a question, feel free to ask it - you do not *only* have to post in the Bitch and Procrastination thread!
I'll go first.
Note - I will be constantly updating it whenever I remember stuff to add
Note 2: I have merged a more recent thread with the same concept into this thread. If members wish to elaborate (or even refine, if you're feeling nit-picky) their responses they are more than welcome
Problems and their Solutions in my short story Pieces of Me
-will post up link when I can be bothered, otherwise it's in the 2004 BOS Showcase thread.
Part 1 (see attachment)
Getting Started – Ideas and the initial working process up to and including first full draft
CONTENTS
- Character names
- Different voices for my different characters
- Getting too caught up in my characters and forgetting about the story
- Plot Problems
- Becoming too attached to my story
- Having good ideas but having problems putting them in
- Squishing myself into a short story writer’s perspective
- Wondering where the hell my story was going, if anywhere, Part 1
- Why can’t I move forward? What’s holding me back?
- Working on an already fragmented story in sections
Part 2
Reworking and Refining – More on the writing process and progress
Critiquing your own work
Every individual approaches this differently. Some are able to simply work on the computer screen, other people find it easier to print off a hard copy and critique with a coloured pen (or sending it to someone else to be critiqued with a coloured pen).
The vast majority of people will find that their concept doesn’t come across as clearly or consistently as they want it to be. In some situations, you might even look at something you wrote and think “This is so pathetic, and what’s even more pathetic is that I can’t see how I could make it any better”. Do NOT give up! This is what the reworking is for! No-one expects the first draft to be perfect. In fact, I have yet to hear from anyone whose first draft *was* perfect. Most people have found that general concept and character names aside, the first draft does not resemble the finished product at all. So don’t give up just yet!
Personally, I was pretty ambivalent by the time I’d finished my first full draft. I was just SO glad I’d got that far at all, and yet extremely frustrated because what I’d slaved over didn’t look anything like what I wanted it to. “Should I hand it in now as it is, or burn it up?”, I pondered. My teacher emphasised again and again that my first full draft was a base from which to work on
What I did was to print off a copy of my major work and make the margin sizes pretty big. I cut away the oversized margins (alternatively, split a page in landscape view in half), and stuck them into my journal – leaving plenty of space to right notes around the section of my story. A lot of the notes I had were things like “the rhythm of this sentence sucks. Change it!” or “I don’t like the way this is going. Replace it with something better!”
How to approach your first full reworking
Your first full reworking will likely be just as challenging as your first full draft, however, it will be quite different. Many find the first full reworking more satisfying, as they can easily see the progress of their work and how it makes the story work more cohesively. It’s a good idea to have a hard copy of your first full draft on hand for you to work off (so you don’t have to keep switching Microsoft Word windows).
Before you sally forth to do great deeds, have a moment to stop and think about your reworking. What are the most important objectives? What and where exactly are the big problems that need to be fixed, and how can I fix them? Keep all of this in mind when you rework, to ensure consistency.
For me, my goals were to make my concept and intention far clearer, and also to plant the “little seeds” of the plot way in advance so I could reduce the amount of jackhammering that went on in my first full draft. Just thinking about all the changes I had to make was mind-boggling at times (my first full draft was very sketchy, and that’s putting it nicely). It’s important not to overwhelm yourself – the changes that can happen in a reworking can be quite significant. What is important is that these changes be for the better.
There’s a beautiful line in the film Finding Forrester that says: “The first draft you write from your heart. The second you write with your head”. I loved this quote, and stuck it into my journal to look at frequently. The key is not to waste time kicking yourself for things you think are stupid, but instead, to look for the things you can improve/change for the better.
The process of reworking
Put bluntly, this is where (and how) we turn little stick-houses into works of art. It can be tedious, involving re-writing a particular section over and over again to get it right, restructuring, merging, turning it upside-down and inside-out, deconstructing, the insertion of new ideas/themes etc, and more. But the end results will be fabulous. Prepare to be amazed!
I’d printed off a few copies of my first full draft and sent them around to different people, who returned them all covered in red (or purple) pen. Working from the top, I did my best to take on board their constructive criticism (which was generally very good, although it depends *who* critiques your work). I had a couple of situations where I disagreed with what they were saying, but usually this was due to me not making my intention clear enough. The biggest comment I got from all my sources was that they didn’t really ‘get’ what I was trying to do, so fixing that was my overall reworking theme.
Since the story was fragmented way out of control, I played around with several “linking” ideas, such as motifs here and there to link the different character pieces along (which doubled as a way of sneaking in the idea that they’re not really different people at all), dream sequences etc (as well as a VERY obvious tear scene. Like, hello!!! How much more jackhammering does a reader need?!?!?!) but it got a bit fiddly. And here is where we start working outside the square.
My initial idea was to only refer to my “whole”, who had minimal or no voice in what was going on. It was obvious from my first full draft and the feedback that what I had tried to do wasn’t clear enough. Fair enough, I’ll just do it another way. I played around with anything that could work, and looked for strong methods that would support the story as a whole. The key word is playing around – I wasn’t taking it too seriously at the time, anything that worked and felt good, I left as it was. Plenty of time to refine it later, but what was important is that I had something I worked, and something I was happy with (and knew I would be happier still later down the track).
To resolve the major jackhammering (for the uninitiated, it means confusing the audience by throwing too much too quickly at a reader. So literally, jackhammering) issues going on in my major work, I worked from the top downwards. Thanks to my first full draft, I had a plot, now I just needed to make it work as a whole. I had printed out a copy of my major work and had written out notes to myself about where the important stuff had to start easing in, and where the insignificant stuff could be cleanly removed. The essential thing is for the story to work as a whole – everything I changed, I did so because it benefited the story as a whole. A bigger load on the mind, but it was a good thing - reworking with the entire story in mind ensures that there’s a lot more unity to the piece as a whole, and there are no huge “suprises” for the audience to have to gulp down without the aid of a spoon.
Wondering where the hell my story was going, if anywhere, Part 2
I remember last year, at various points of my reworking, looking at a bit and thinking “omg, where the hell is this thing going?”. Like so many other people, I had what I thought was a very clear idea of how I wanted my major work to end up like. My first full draft was an attempt at getting ‘there’, but it wasn’t coming across right. Isn’t that frustrating? I was spending too much narrative time on some scenes, and not enough time on others, which lead to imbalance and only half-conveyed ideas. More changes had to be made, not only to the direction of my major work (and how my key concepts were expressed) but in my approach to the story itself. This was one of the few times I actually listened to some of my own advice – “If it’s not working one way, try another way”. It’s never fun changing *again* after you already made big changes the last time, but sometimes it’s worth it.
Whilst I was reworking, I found my story going into a completely new direction, particularly with the inclusion of another “voice”. I was torn between trying to complete what I’d started, and running with wherever the story took me (I’m of the “a story writes itself, an author just writes it down” camp, although some of my friends disagree and they are still very good writers – we just work differently). In the end, I decided to just let it play itself out and ended up writing up a whole new tail end of my story (a good 3 000 words or so). Due to all the changes in the reworking process, the mood of my story changed, its direction changed, the reactions changed.
And you know what? It worked.
Taking Care of One’s Self – keeping sane as an ee2 student in the HSC
Juggling multiple major works
This is a bit like saying you want to build a grand architectural masterpiece within the one lifetime. And then, tilting your head to one side and thinking a second one might just look really grand sitting right next to it.
Happily, the reality of juggling multiple HSC major works is a little bit easier, but you *must* balance your time roughly equally between them.
I did Textiles and EE2 last year (although I know a girl who is going 5 major works this year – art/textiles/english extension 2/music/society and culture – crazy!). Whilst I kept english pretty much under control, textiles required a lot of almost all-nighters to get it done because I misjudged the production time.
If you haven’t done it already, draw up a realistic timeframe your major works require to be finished (and make sure you have “emergency time” planned in as well). The key word is realistic – don’t give yourself a week to get 40% of your major work done. What I did initially was count up the hours my major works required, added them together, threw in some “emergency time”, and voila. Divide this grand total by the number of weeks left till hand-in date, and then you have a very rough idea of how much work you need to do. Depending on how flexible you are, you can somewhat comfortably work around all your assessments. Mind you, the above idea was very rough – if you need to have something done by a particular time, then you must fiddle around with your timetable as needed.
Note that I mashed up my two timetables. The reason for this is that I’m not the most consistent person in the world – there were time when I’d spend days on end sewing (this includes in roll call and on the train… haha) and there were other times I’d spend writing endlessly. My theory was “so long as I’m working on *something*, it’s ok”.
-Constantly under construction. Attached files will also be updated as needed-
*Thanks to illodous for the pdf conversions
NB: Whilst I do not particularly like my EE2 major work these days (I’ve actually forbidden some of my friends from reading it…) I learnt a lot from the writing process. I'm proud of what I did last year, and more importantly, I'm satisfied - I don't regret a minute of it. The more you do, the more you learn. The more you learn, the more you can do, and so on.
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