Although I've never read any of his books, his article makes me want to. This article (here) Facing the Hard Questions Before Chapter One by Len Deighton I thought was a fantastic and inspirational primer on writing novels. The novels I've written have been anything but planned. I hope to change all this. This article might be the catalyst.
In the past I've worked the Nano way; throwing anything and everything down on the paper as quickly as I can. This has lead to seven extrememly rough drafts and 1.5 finished novels. I'm thinking that I need to try and slow down and follow the advice of Mr. Deighton and Robert W. Walker advocated in Dead On Writing (The How-To Book to Die For). His writing style was a "wave style" as he called it. He would write chapter 1 then he'd go back, edit it, and continue on to chapter 2. Then he'd go back to Chapter 1, edit Chapters 1 and 2 and then writer 3. He'd advance by going back first, editing the chapters before, then writing the next.
I think I'll use the advice of both these two and see if I can't make a bigger dent in #2, On Edge.
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