Today, I had the privilege of meeting with Virginia Tech writing professor, Robin Allnutt. We had a great conversation about the editing process, creating drafts and how to know what material to cut out. He gave me the advice of taking some time between drafts to think about ideas so that you can develop them more fully. We also discussed cutting content from stories and for this, he had two excellent metaphors that really stuck with me. First, he compared descriptions to turning a jewel around to see the different ways that light reflects off it. Then, he talked about how writing is sort of like juggling in the sense that you are deciding whether to focus on character, plot or setting at any given moment. Mr. Allnutt recommended some books to me, such as The Things They Carry and told me to “be absolutely wild with [my] ambitions” when I mentioned interest in screenwriting. I’ve also begun working on my query letter, which is something you send to agents so that they will pick up your book to help you get it published.
