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[What's Next?] Revision Real Talk
Hello, ladies! I am so excited to begin my new bi-weekly blog here on She Writes, What’s Next? I’ll be posting here every other Thursday and am eager to jump in and share with all of you, just as you have been sharing with me!
A little while ago (read: three months ago) I finished the first draft of my first novel and to be honest, it was highly anti-climactic. There was an initial sense of relief because, finally, I had finished something. Actually finished something! I started it as my senior thesis last year and thought, well, I’ve got fifty pages, might as well see this thing through. I told myself it would be done by the end of the summer. Then by the end of October. Then by Thanksgiving. Finally, shortly after the new year began, it was done.
But not really.
I think that a lot of people, particularly people who don’t like to write, don’t really give much thought to the revision process. I had a writing professor in college who used to say she had boxes full of drafts for just one novel, which was a work in progress for nearly ten years. If I take ten years to finish something you can take away my internet, or desserts, but I get her point: writing something worth reading takes time. That doesn’t mean what you wrote is bad – it just means it could be better.
I’ve found that getting myself to sit down and revise is harder than getting myself to sit down and write ever was. I’ll set aside a few hours to write and then, what’s that, you say? Downton Abbey comes back on tonight? Well okay, I guess I can watch.
Then I’ll be sitting down again a week later and oh, what’s this? My friends are going to that tasty little taco place with the yummy mojitos? The revision can wait.
Basically, I’m the type of person who (when it comes to writing) is prone to distraction, especially when things don’t necessary need to get done. As a result all I have is a bunch of post-its scattered around my desk that say things like “dream sequence – car crash?” and “Melinda – zany, confidante?” and “buy more chips – not the lame kind.”
That’s hardly the next Harry Potter.
What works for me, and what I’ll recommend to you, is this: Tell people what you’re working on. Not just random people who don’t care about you. Real people, like your friends and your family. The thing about people who like you is that they take an interest in the things that you tell them about, and they’re likely to ask follow-up questions. If a month after you’ve finished your first draft your dad asks you when he gets to read your book and you have to swallow your chocolate chip pancakes and make up a lame excuse, then you aren’t getting any work done, honey. Not that I’ve ever done that.
So I sent my manuscript to two friends – two friends exactly. Ladies who studied writing with me at Barnard, who I knew had been in writing workshops before and who I trusted to be honest, but not soul-crushing. Once I have their notes it will be time to sit down and get to some serious revision business.
And then I’ll really have to figure out what’s next.
Cait Levin is the Community Manager at She Writes. You can read more of her blog (when she stops watching so much Dawson’s Creek and actually writes more of a blog) here.
Comment
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Comment by Irene Kessler on March 26, 2013 at 8:23am -
Hi Anne,
Just got to read your post. Great idea. I know I have picked up all the threads (my editor said so) but that is a great way to track tension, resolution, etc. Seems like a lot of work but worth it.
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Comment by Anne Bower on March 26, 2013 at 4:35am -
Wow--you started writing at 15!!!! At that age I was a dumbfounded teenager, bumbling along with no idea what I was supposed to do with any small talents I had. I'm a half century older than you and still kinda figuring it out. Sounds like you've found your path and are determined to keep to it.
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Comment by Mercedes-Benz Taylor on March 25, 2013 at 9:33pm -
Hello Anne,
I have learned to be a writer who can sit down for hours at a time to write and that was not easy. I'm 21 and the second oldest of five children so I had to find the time to write and discipline myself in order to make progress. I was fifteen and a half when I began to write my story and as I got older my 'voice' matured and so did my plot which is part of why it took so long for the first (as I call it) official draft.
But I have learned a lot along the way and I like the challenge. Most of my writing gets done at night - I'd say the best of what I write is at night because the house is quite and its dark out. I'm not sure why but this is the time that my imagination goes wild.
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Comment by Irene Kessler on March 25, 2013 at 10:37am
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Thanks Nancy,
Good advice. Never thought of printing it out. I'd like to read it as if it was not mine. Step back. I think that would help.
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Comment by Anne Bower on March 25, 2013 at 10:35am
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Hello Irene and Nancy--I think Nancy's suggestion is great, but I'm also wondering how different people "see" the shape of the narrative. Could one physically draw or chart it somehow (you know, the conflicts, the complications, the rise and fall of tension, the knots/quandries, possible resolutions, resolution or hint that resolution is emerging)? At the near half-way point, I did make a chart: chapter #s at the top, main characters and themes down the left side of the page. Then as I read through the ms., I filled in each box, and this did help me see where things were and how they tracked. For example, in chapter 2, my main character (Miriam) has a bright idea--and it's like she's rubbed a magic lamp, the genie has popped out and said go for it. I couldn't remember how often (or well) I'd used the genie "motif. My chart demonstrated he shows up in chapters 3, 7, 8, and 11. He's kinda fun, so I think I'll bring him in once in a while in the book's second half........
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Comment by Nancy Cohn on March 25, 2013 at 10:02am -
Sympathies Irene. Sometimes the biggest problem is that we know what we want to say, but have not necessarily said it. My advice: take a step back for a few weeks, wait to see what others say. Then print the thing out as though it's a book and reread, noting where the story bogs done, where information is missing, etc. and go from there. As I wrote earlier, I've revised my novel (86,000 words, give or take a few thousand, depending on version) from beginning to end 9 times and spent this morning polishing (now that's a lovely word, isn't it?) and re-polishing the tenth revision of chapter one for the sixth time. You keep revising and polishing until you just know that you can't make it better.
So, bet of luck.
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Comment by Irene Kessler on March 25, 2013 at 5:53am
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Thanks Anne,
I do have two people from a former critique group and I just sent them the ms. I am just anxious to get going and do it so I can focus more on my new book. It's so frustrating to not be able to see what it right in front of me. I feel it but can't pinpoint it. Are there any exercises or suggestions that you know of? I went to one revision workshop but her method does not work for me.
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Comment by Anne Bower on March 25, 2013 at 4:36am
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So, Mercedes, Are you one of these disciplined people who can consistently write for a certain number of hours every day? I know what you mean about wanting to move the narrative along, keeping the story's cohesiveness and movement dynamic over the years of its creation.....
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Comment by Anne Bower on March 24, 2013 at 6:09pm
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Irene--do you have a couple of supportive readers who'll give you the time and care to go through the whole thing? That would probably help a lot. I find I get so close to the work I can't tell what's working and what isn't.....
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Comment by Mercedes-Benz Taylor on March 24, 2013 at 6:05pm
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I've been working on my current story for the past six years. It took me five to write the first draft and the editing is moving faster but I just hope I can finish the story before too much time passes.
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