This Mortal Coil

This weekend, one of my former students, Katie Beckett, died at 34.

Why talk about this at all? Katie was certainly a gifted literature student, one of the best I had had. Her research papers went above and beyond, and her interpretations of texts were nuanced and complex. More importantly, as you read about Katie's life, you will see that she was an IMPORTANT PERSON (TM). There's a law named after her, and her life was in part that of a disability advocate.

I have talked about death here. I've always felt that my father did more harm than good in the world. And my father-in-law had the life he wanted, and left those he knew better than he found them. Katie was a normal person in extraordinary circumstances, and left a legacy to other hospitalized children around the country.

The last time I saw Katie, it was during a writing session I was having at Barnes and Noble during finals week. She robbed me of some of my writing time. I resented that a little. As good a student as Katie was, her new hope was to be a YA writer. She tried to get into a YA program twice, but she wasn't ready. I would go so far to say that Katie was a terrible writer of fiction. But there's a lesson in that too.

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Mirrored from Writer Tamago.

The Writing Process and Tiffany Trent

Tiffany Trent, author of the Hallowmere series, has a new book coming out, The Unnaturalists, an interesting and fantastic tour marrying Victorian science and the biology of faeries. Tamora Pierce has great things to say about the book, and I can speak to how much I enjoyed the Hallowmere series. I'm happy that Tiffany has taken some time out of her Wiscon prep to answer some questions about her writing process.

Tamago: Do you have a regular drafting process, or does your drafting process vary from book to book? (If it varies, please keep one project in mind as you answer these questions.)

Tiffany: It tends to vary from book to book. I’ve tried both chronological drafting and also what I’ll call “scene” drafting, in which I allow myself to write whatever scene I want as it comes to me, regardless of order. I did that with a book I started a couple years ago and it was fun, but it became a great challenge when I tried to figure out where the pieces went. I’m still figuring it out!

Tamago: In general, how many drafts does it take before you are satisfied with a novel?

Tiffany: I’m not sure I’m ever satisfied. The closest to satisfied I’ve been is THE UNNATURALISTS (coming in August) and that took more drafts than I care to count, including three to-the-bones rewrites.

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Mirrored from Writer Tamago.