Excess
Monday, August 31, 2009
The hardest thing, I think, is to identify excess in your own work.
The best sort of editor helps you see it.
I move through the revisions of this Centennial novel, trusting the instincts of my editor, Laura Geringer, learning from them. I move through it considering this third season of Mad Men, which seems in some ways thwarted by too many competing story lines. Something about the rhythm feels slightly off to me. Something about the places and things on which the directors choose to dwell. Mad Men remains my favorite show on TV. But I am watching it as a writer, measuring its rhythms, standing back, even as I try to think and work harder against my own story-telling obsessions.
4 comments:
Yes, I've thought the same thing about this season of Mad Men. I'm waiting, hoping the show will find it's groove.
Looking at the world through a writer's eye... Amazing what you can see, right?
I think I'm the queen of tangents. It's the result of having so many interests. I wish we'd get Madmen, but no cable.
I need a life editor. Preferably one who deals with the concept of "over scheduling your life". 'Cause I am noticing a pattern.
I haven't seen Mad Men but so many TV shows seem to flounder after the first couple of seasons. Either becoming too character driven or too plot driven and not finding the balance that they achieved in earlier seasons.
I can't imagine that your novels would suffer from that though! :)
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