@bookishpodcast
Shahnaz Ahmed
@bookishpodcast · 1:00

A paragraph does not a book make!

So I was chatting with my good friend here on Swell Nameless Journal, and I made the comment A-A-A-A-A paragraph does not a book the comment because I'm writing a book, and I was telling her about my struggles with writing and how on my reread of my first draft, as I'm trying to edit and sort things out, I come upon a paragraph that I love so much from reading it over and over and over, and then I have to move on because the rest of it sucks

Asking for thoughts on the above statement. @NamelessJournal @bowie @wordsmith @loribpalmer @DBPardes @arish @ErinBeaver

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@bowie
Bowie Rowan
@bowie · 2:15

https://s.swell.life/SSLLBHzVNsCauWy

And it also takes lots of rewriting and rereading and taking space from the work in order to see different paragraphs and sentences in the context of how the work and the story is continuing to evolve. So that's what's been really interesting for me. And working on the latest draft of my book is seeing how a certain paragraph that I love
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@arish
Arish Ali
@arish · 1:59

Some books only have a paragraph worth of material

I think you either will not read the book or it will just not kind of take you. You will not have the experience that you want. I think in general, anything in life, there's average stuff, and there is exceptional stuff, regardless of how good a writer you are, not all of your output is going to be exceptionally high quality, but there'll be places where you will soar and it will be exceptional
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@Wordsmith
Sreeja V
@Wordsmith · 1:20

That starting point of the creative process

But at the same time, I must agree that the initial trigger, the sort of start to your creative process, has come from that paragraph. So it would definitely have to make your book. And of course, you'll have to build around it. And here's wishing you a lot of luck and hoping that you complete the process. We get to read your book very soon
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@Ramya
Ramya V
@Ramya · 1:37

@bookishpodcast @bowie

Instead, I just copy and paste them right at the bottom of my document where I have this special page devoted to such lines that border on being purple prose but are too good to be discarded in the hope that I could either repurpose them within the same story somewhere or even consider other spin offs from those lines. Also, as I mostly dabble in short stories, this is a luxury that I cannot afford for short stories generally have to make the 3000 to 5000 word limit
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@bookishpodcast
Shahnaz Ahmed
@bookishpodcast · 4:58

More of my rambles @bowie@NamelessJournal

It's not about I love it. And, oh, my gosh, I'm going to lose it. No, absolutely not. I love it. And I'm keeping it and it belongs there. It belongs there. It is absolutely critical. That's what I'm talking about. So you have this paragraph that needs to be there, and it's there at the right time, the right pacing, and it has all the punches that it needs
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