Tuesday, September 29, 2009

How to re-enter world of book?

I have a question for you all--be ye picture book writer or trilogy triathelete.  How do you get back into a book when you've set it down for a longish while?  Let's say that you were forced at penpoint to finish something else and you had to leave it languish for a few months.  What do you do to get back in that world?  Might be the same as writing a sequel, now that I think about it.

3 comments:

  1. Let's see ... I once took 2 1/2 years off of a book to complete an MFA program so that I could learn how to write the book in question. Upon completing said program, I sat down to complete the book. Guess what? I didn't remember the character's voice. What was it that she wanted? Why did she want that? And what was the pressing issue? I had to completely reacquaint myself with my character, setting, story - the whole nine yards. It was like writing a different book with the same character - and I learned that she had changed as much as I had during the break. I started back in by reading what I had written, revising, revising, and revising the first few chapters before moving back into new territory. I'm really enjoying this NEW book that I'm writing. Maybe that is like writing a sequel. Interesting thought, Mary.

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  2. I find that even if I have been gone for only a few days, I always have to go back and read some of what I have written. The bigger the world, the more this is required. Sometimes I'll just sit down and start to read it aloud, to get the rhythm and the characters.

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  3. What Venus said! I like to read aloud... sometimes a few pages... sometimes a few chapters (or the whole thing).

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