Yesterday, for my Creative Writing: Fiction class, we were to post our drafts online of the assignment, "Point Of View." The objective of the assignment was to focus on third-person perspective and build a plot with characters that are so compelling, it could not have been told from any other perspective. The comments that I had received from my classmates of my draft titled, "Nearview," was very much appreciated and positive. The one thing that they did point out, however, was that some of the dialogue and turn of events had happened so fast in which I should have elaborated more. (Condensing can really work against you).
Now, when I was first writing my story, I was in love. Maybe that sounds a bit bias, but we all are to our work because we cherish it. But anyway, while I was writing the story, my mind was racing and fingers were punching keys like, "Click! Click! Click! Click! SPACE! Click! Click! Click! Click! SPACE! DELETE! DELETE!" That once I clocked how many pages I had so far, my heart skipped a beat. (Did I just rhyme?)
I had remembered that our instructor had posted to aim for five pages if it were double-spaced. MIND YOU! I was only quarter of the way done with FOUR PAGES SINGLE-SPACED!
I PANICKED! Big Time! I'm like, "how am I suppose to make this five pages double-spaced, when I'm already at four pages singled-spaced, needing ANOTHER four pages at least to get the story across?" So...what I did, after calming down and pacing back in forth in my study room over a million times then making a large 20oz coffee--yes...20 ounces, I started to condense the story a bit....more than a bit. Like....ALOT.
When everything was condensed, I was still over the requirement. I sighed and deleted a few dialogue pieces here. Descriptions there. It...was.....PAINFUL. I posted my draft online and waited for the comments to roll in. Apart from being surprised from the amount of feedback, I noticed that no one at all was upset about the length of my story. They all wanted MORE. So I started to think, well, maybe if I just wrote the whole thing the first time, being that it was a FIRST DRAFT and not the FINAL DRAFT, maybe it would not have mattered if it was even ten pages.
In a nutshell, I should have done it to its completion how I planned so that the story didn't seem rushed. I'm going to edit and add everything back to the story that I had previously removed since we can re-post. (Thank God I save EVERY DRAFT). I made it known that length was my fear. That because of the five page requirement, I took ALOT out of my story that I thought the story could still survive without.
EEEEHHHHH!!! WRONG!
I could have waited until I was TOLD to condense it....if I would have been told that is and in which I probably won't be. The happy ending? I get to write the story to my liking and not disrupt the art behind it while my teacher, Mrs. Keren, gets to read a story that's longer than expected, but hopefully worth her time! :D
Now, when I was first writing my story, I was in love. Maybe that sounds a bit bias, but we all are to our work because we cherish it. But anyway, while I was writing the story, my mind was racing and fingers were punching keys like, "Click! Click! Click! Click! SPACE! Click! Click! Click! Click! SPACE! DELETE! DELETE!" That once I clocked how many pages I had so far, my heart skipped a beat. (Did I just rhyme?)
I had remembered that our instructor had posted to aim for five pages if it were double-spaced. MIND YOU! I was only quarter of the way done with FOUR PAGES SINGLE-SPACED!
I PANICKED! Big Time! I'm like, "how am I suppose to make this five pages double-spaced, when I'm already at four pages singled-spaced, needing ANOTHER four pages at least to get the story across?" So...what I did, after calming down and pacing back in forth in my study room over a million times then making a large 20oz coffee--yes...20 ounces, I started to condense the story a bit....more than a bit. Like....ALOT.
When everything was condensed, I was still over the requirement. I sighed and deleted a few dialogue pieces here. Descriptions there. It...was.....PAINFUL. I posted my draft online and waited for the comments to roll in. Apart from being surprised from the amount of feedback, I noticed that no one at all was upset about the length of my story. They all wanted MORE. So I started to think, well, maybe if I just wrote the whole thing the first time, being that it was a FIRST DRAFT and not the FINAL DRAFT, maybe it would not have mattered if it was even ten pages.
In a nutshell, I should have done it to its completion how I planned so that the story didn't seem rushed. I'm going to edit and add everything back to the story that I had previously removed since we can re-post. (Thank God I save EVERY DRAFT). I made it known that length was my fear. That because of the five page requirement, I took ALOT out of my story that I thought the story could still survive without.
EEEEHHHHH!!! WRONG!
I could have waited until I was TOLD to condense it....if I would have been told that is and in which I probably won't be. The happy ending? I get to write the story to my liking and not disrupt the art behind it while my teacher, Mrs. Keren, gets to read a story that's longer than expected, but hopefully worth her time! :D
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