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Subject: Re: ATTN JMS: Quick One About How You Write
Date: Wed, 21 Dec 2005 01:10:28 +0000 (UTC)
From: jmsatb5@aol.com
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated

Brent F. Osgood wrote:
> When writing, do you tend to visualize the scenes/pages before/as you
> write?  That is, do you use mental images to help shape the words, or is
>   it purely a "written" thing?
>
> Does your answer change depending on what you're writing?
>
> I asked David Foster Wallace that and he said he didn't have use mental
> images as he wrote, that it was pretty much in his head as words and
> that's how it came out.  I asked him because he did a reading where he
> previewed "Incarnations of Burned Children" and it painted such a
> picture in my head it was like I was creating the movie as I listened.
>
> Since you work in more visual media (or in tandem with them), I wondered
> if it made a difference.
>
> -Brent

Mark Twain said you should never begin writing something until you have
finished it to your satisfaction.  So that's what I try to do.  I close
my eyes and see every scene, every line, until it's clear.  If I hit a
roadblock, I back up and go another way until the whole thing goes
smoothly.  Only then do I sit down to write out what I've now seen.

For me it works...for somebody else, it could be the worst thing in the
world.

jms