LKH (Potentially) Dirty Mad Libs

[darksongtrilogy.livejournal.com]

After the last blog, I got to thinking about what LKH's "rough draft" must look like. We know that when she gets stuck she'll occasionally type insert weapons scene here or just leave blanks (seriously, she confessed this more than once) to be filled in later.

So first of all, what constitutes a rough draft? A lot of us are authors. When is the first draft really finished? If you've got insert weapons scene sprinkled throughout, plot bridges to nowhere, and contradictory plot points to be cut out, can you consider it "done?" Second, this insight really explains a lot, and I'll be willing to bet money that some of these plot points that she calls "false advertising" makes it into the plot summary on the dust jacket. That's happened two or three times already.

Third, using the very good analogy that the book must currently read like Mad Libs, is it any wonder the books are in the shape they're in? Something like this is ambiguous at best.

Edward's __________ was in my ____________. It was a great big ____________ that I couldn't have gotten anywhere else, and believe me, I'd looked. After a while I'd had to give up on my usual connections and thought about having one custom-made to fit my ______________, but Edward always came through in a pinch. His ______________ was just perfectly sized.

Well, hell, I wonder why we get sex scenes that make no sense?

But I was also wondering what other Mad Libs we might see, if we read the, ahem, completed first draft--or how we might fill those Mad Libs in.

Comments

[foolish.livejournal.com]

...it all makes sense now.

[ravenclaw-devi.livejournal.com]

Bwah!

The scary part is that I could well imagine that this is how LKH writes.

[adam-adonai.livejournal.com]

To my mind, a draft is complete when the entire MS is written and not when they're gaps in it.

To be fair, all first drafts are rough. That's to be expected.

[karaz.livejournal.com]

Hahah. Now I want someone to take and actual sex excerpt and make it in to a mad lib for us all. I secretly suspect that some of the mad libbers might come up with better smut.

[darksongtrilogy.livejournal.com]

Okay, I just tried to do this and my head exploded, so I'm not trying again.

Of course, I would have to try to go with the threesome in ID, which is enough to cause permanent brain damage.

[karaz.livejournal.com]

I was pretty sure it would cause head explosions, which is why I didn't try to do it myself. ;P

[salveo-opes.livejournal.com]

Done...I'm done with a story when it's got a beginning, a middle, and an ending, complete with consistent characterization, and a nice balance of dialogue and descriptives--and the plot is consistently dealt with.

I may have an occasional 'chapter break ?' highlighted with yellow here and there if I can't decide as I'm going through and writing, but I don't deal with those until I'm finished. Then I can be more objective in deciding where a chapter may or may not need to be placed.

All of the above said, I make certain a spell check has been run for the complete document.

Maybe I'm fortunate--I can sit down and start typing at the beginning and go all the way through to the end. I don't have to type out scenes to work into something here and there to work into a story, I can just go from start to finish.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

For me, a first draft is when it's done - I've blurted out all I want to say and that's it. I don't leave notes of *insert whatever here* because I tend to write those to myself as I'm going along. No, I get what I want said, then I put it aside and don't look at it for a few weeks/months/years, then I go back, correct the spelling and grammar, and start shuffling things around for improvement.

[catskin.livejournal.com]

Argh, I've no idea when the first draft ends and the revision begins for me. I usually revise little bits and pieces as I go along. But I will wait until a book is finished before I go back and make major changes.

I know a few writers who use the *insert random thing here* technique if they're not sure about a technical term or know they'll need to flesh something out better late on. But LKH? I'm pretty sure it'd be more like: *insert that scene from MG2 here, but change names and hair colour*

[witchwillow.livejournal.com]

I've never written a novel. That's what I'm trying to do now so I can have a pattern in my head for how it's done. I have written many many many many many short stories. To the point where my first draft, often or not gets done in my -head- as I'm shuffling around possibilities and what I want to play with and explore.

My second draft is what gets written down. And I tend to do research as I write because that can give me an angle. Then I put it aside for a day or so. Get someone else to read it. Then I read it and start editing and start deciding what's really necessary, what isn't, what's missing.

By my third draft I'm just going through for grammar, spelling and typos.

Re: The *insert string theory quantum physics here*, while that would be wise for something like string theory, I've never had it actually work for me. It feels like I'm leaving a big hole and being too lazy to fill it. I end up trying to find a way around it if an hour or three of research isn't enough to let me write it.

Because if I need to read a book to write a couple of paragraphs, then those couple of paragraphs could end up more important and detailed than my entire story. Which is -not- my point.

Anyway, I end my rambling now.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

I know the feeling - I can't just leave an *insert whatever here* - if I need to know something, I'll stop what I'm doing, go look it up (at the very least Google or Wikipedia) see if that helps, or leads me to something new - and then see how that goes in the *insert whatever here* bit.

Anything less just...doesn't sit right with me. It'll irk me until I figure things out.

[thekiwiwhoflew.livejournal.com]

I'm the opposite. I don't know if its because english isn't my native tongue- But sometimes it's like I'll know what I want to say but I can't remember the word. So I'll leave a '_______', then when I print it out to edit it or type it up and print it out I'll usually either have remembered what the word was or have a better one.

Oh.

Or fight scenes.

I hate fight scenes.

I finished my chapter, but it needed a fight scene which I needed inspiration for. So I left that, wrote what I knew to write, then went on a violent movie marathon- What I call watching the USA network. Then I had some ideas and wrote that down.

[thekiwiwhoflew.livejournal.com]

I guess I'm like her in this. I once read 'do what you know and leave what you don't for later', if forced it (for me) tends to be very obvious. Forced, I mean. Anyway, I tend to want to cut right to the chase, which makes it too rushed. So I cut to the yummy action packed parts, and where I think could use filler I leave a note. Mind you it's stuff like "STUFF HERE =D" and "Shit: Happens"

...But I'm a lowly fanfic writer, so really? I have the proffesionalism of a gnat.

[darksongtrilogy.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm writing a trilogy now that requires massive amounts of research. I'm a revise-as-I-go author anyway; I write a section, print it out, and immediately rewrite it. It makes the first draft take FOREVER to write, but it's probably the cleanest first draft you've ever seen in your life. I'll just have to proofread for technical errors and cut the verbosity when it's done.

But as far as heavy research goes, it boggles my mind to think of leaving it until later. For minor details, I could see--if that's your writing style--leaving a note to look it up later. A word in another language, for example. But for visiting the Parthenon as my characters do? How do you write that scene at ALL without research?

Same goes for a fight scene and weapons research. How do you write a fight scene if you haven't a clue of how the weapons are used or how many rounds the pistol can hold or how bad the recoil is? I don't see a complete, logical scene coming out of that, and I guess that's my standard for a "finished" first draft. You've got to at least have a logical plot progression, beginning, middle, and end, to call your draft "done."

[quill-shadow.livejournal.com]

Ah, that explains why, in one of the Merry Gentry books, the ring she wears has (paraphrased): "an ancient Celtic inscription reading, 'Insert'".

And here I thought it was because it was a fertility charm and the Goddess and Consort just gave up on subtlety. "Insert! Rubbing off won't get her pregnant! Insert it, dammit!"

[witchwillow.livejournal.com]

That is so wrong. For real? Seriously? For truth? Wow. So. So. Wrong.

That's like a Trek book being printed with 'tech babble'.