Anne Rice on Writing

This is a clip from Anne Rice's interview on the show "InnerViews."  As she points out elsewhere in the interview, some authors count on having an editor to polish everything, cut, mold, whatever.  She doesn't and when she submits a manuscript to her editor, all she's looking for is feedback, not editing.  Every writer is different with no two having exactly the same writing techniques.  Not every author is capable of effective self-editing because some (maybe most) can't step back enough from the story to view it objectively, especially while he or she is in the midst of creating the story.  The way I do it or Anne Rice does it is not necessarily the "right way."  The only "right way" is the way that works for you as a writer.

Anne says she does not work in drafts, that she goes back over each chapter until it's the way she wants it and then moves on.  I do the same thing, but each re-work of a chapter I consider to be a "draft."  And because of something that may happen in, say, chapter 12, I sometimes do find myself going all the way back to chapter 1 and adding or altering material there.