Revisionland

Listening to: Jack Johnson, "Holes to Heaven". Gotta say, it's nice to have a laptop with speakers that I don't cover with my hands when I type. Much more logical, yes?.

I'm still stuck in Revisionland.

It seems like I've been revising this book forever, but it's only been since December 8. Yeah, yeah, that's a bit of a long time, but remember that I had Christmas in there. The holidays always screw me up--all the hustle and bustle, all the buying and wrapping and traveling, makes it hard to work.

And then there was the avoidance. Oh boy, was there avoidance.

When I first started writing this one, I had no idea where it could go. Once I flipped the idea around in my head a bit, I saw some possible paths, and I took one. That path, in the end, required me to take a bit of a risk.

The scenes that are in my protagonist's POV are written in first person. Her voice just jumped at me as soon as I started, so there was no getting around it. The story demanded it. Which was fine with me, because I do first person a lot better than I do third. A LOT. While yes, this is something I should work on, I can't really change what the story is asking, can I?

Okay, done with the excuses now.

The story also, however, demanded another viewpoint character--my antagonist. That's one of the downfalls of first person--you can't really tell what's going on anywhere but around the protagonist, and since she couldn't have any personal contact with the bad guy for the first half of the book--didn't even know he existed, really--I needed to throw his POV in to up the tension, as well as help the reader get to know him.

It started out in third person. I didn't really want to take that very risky move of having two first-person viewpoint characters. I quickly realized that his scenes were becoming rather annoying, though--he was cardboard, one-dimensional, and kept spouting all these cliche bad guy lines. "She will be mine." "I would not fail again." Blah, blah, blah.

So I switched all his scenes to first person, sometime last summer. Surprisingly, it seemed to work--it fleshed him out quite a bit, got me much farther into his head. It helped me come up with a plausible backstory that explained his current actions. And that backstory even begged the reader for a bit of sympathy, which I like. I'm not a fan of antagonists that the reader automatically hates.

It was only when I finished and was reading through the manuscript that I realized: his sections were also ridiculously telling. Since he was alone most of the time, and we were stuck in his head, there was nothing for him to do but tell us his plans, hint at why he was doing what he was doing, fume over this and that. I wanted to smack him. I wanted to smack myself.

So I made a plan to add another character to his scenes, a sidekick or cohort of sorts, someone he could talk to.

And that's where the avoidance came in.

This seemed like such a big project, I couldn't help but shy away. The little voice in my head whined, "But we already changed all his scenes! I don't wanna do it again!"

I finally got to work on it, though. And on a whim, I changed the scenes back to third person. If done with care, I can keep the things that cropped up in first person that helped flesh him out. And boy, I'm only halfway done, but those scenes are so much better now. The dialogue in there, plus the character I pulled from the second half of the book and into my antagonist's scenes, who amuses me (he's very impassive, and it infuriates my antagonist, which pushes him to do things he might not do otherwise, just to try and get a reaction from his cohort).

I'm going to try to finish those scenes today--just power right through them. Looking back over how these sections have evolved, I can only say that, once again, writing has surprised me.

I don't care how long you do this--there will always be something that takes you by surprise. And that? Is just one of the many reasons why I love it.

An All-Around Guide to Editing and Revising

I am of the opinion that, just like writing, there's no one "right way" to revise a novel. You have to experiment with different methods until you find the right one for you. There are, however, a wealth of tips and tricks out there on the Internet and in your local bookstore that can help you piece together your very own, special-as-a-snowflake method.

First of all, there are two books I read in preparation for my current revision that are really shaping how I think about my work. They are:

Self-Editing for Fiction Writers: How to Edit Yourself Into Print, by Renni Browne and Dave King

This one covers nearly all the bases, attacking all those bad habits that you indulge in during your first draft. Which is all well and good, because that's what first drafts are. But in the editing process, you have to let your strict, be-spectacled taskmaster out of that closet you shoved him into six months earlier. Browne and King show just how to really let that taskmaster roll, right down to examples from both classic and contemporary literature to which they apply their own principles. The authors also offer exercises at the end of each chapter, so the reader can practice what (s)he's learned.

Tips:

• Take notes. As I read, I got so overwhelmed by all the wonderful and pertinent advice that I feared I might forget something. I made sure to capture on paper all the bits and pieces that I knew were my worst offenses. And before each editing session, I review those notes so that each important point is stuck in my head.
  

• Invest in several colors of highlighters. For each "no-no" that they outline, they advise going through your manuscript and highlighting each offense you've committed. I plan to do this on my second pass of Grim Light, after I've caught all the basic stuff. I fully expect to emerge on the other side with a very, um, colorful manuscript.

Spunk and Bite: A Writer's Guide to Bold, Contemporary Style by Arthur Plotnik

This book takes everything you learned from Elements of Style--you have read Elements, right?--and tells you just when to use or disregard all those time-honored bits of advice. It's true, many years have passed since the first publication of the hallowed Writer's Bible, and it's also true that--gulp--much of the advice contained therein doesn't always apply anymore. Go ahead, purists, throw your hats and rotten tomatoes and shoes at me. But it's all a matter of knowing when to follow the path that was laid out decades ago, and when to veer off in a new direction. This book, I hope, will show you the way.

Tips:

• Again, take notes. It can be overwhelming at times.
  
  
• Be prepared for some serious hits to your ego when you realize that it'll take a long, long while before you can successfully apply a lot of the advice in this book. It'll take some serious creativity and brain-stretching, but it'll be worth it. I'm not there, yet, of course--not anywhere near there--but I can see the payoff already.

Websites:

I've covered some of these before, but they all bear repeating. And there are a few new additions, as well. All very valuable.

Holly Lisle: How to Revise a Novel

This really helped streamline my editing process, both physically and mentally.

Holly Lisle: One-Pass Manuscript Revision: From First Draft to Last in One Cycle

Again with the streamlining.

Tess Gerritsen: The Second Draft

What to look for when you're editing.

Tia Nevitt: Word for the Novelist: Revisions, Part ONE and Part TWO

This is part of Tia's very informative and helpful Word for the Novelist series. She's a super-power-user of Word, and seems to know every facet of this complex application. If you use Word, I highly recommend perusing both the Revisions section of this guide, as well as the guide as whole. Links to each section can be found in her sidebar.

So that, my friends, is the complete list of all the elements that have shaped my revision process. Read, bookmark, and give them a try. And if you have any other links or recommended books, feel free to share in the comments, and we'll add to the list!

P.S. And if you're beyond the revision process at this point and on the hunt for beta readers, Absolute Write is launching a beta-matching project on December 25, although you can sign up for it right now.

Happy revising!

All right, FINE.

All right. I'll come back.

I've been avoiding the blog recently because, well, I just didn't really feel like it. NaNo went south for me (and not in the good, "hey it's warmer down here" way, more like the "this book belongs in a basement somewhere, gathering dust and being eaten by rodents" kinda way). Yes, yes, I know, with NaNo, you're supposed to write badly, that's the point, blah blah blah.

It wasn't the writing itself that was bothering me. It was the plot. Dear lord, the plot. With such a short span of time in which to create it (I'm not an outliner, and never will be), I turned in desperation to overplayed cliches, done-to-death tropes, and plot twists that even a blind man could see coming from a mile away in a thick fog. As I told my husband, "I think I liked this novel better when Dean Koontz wrote it in 1995."*

Bad writing, I can fix. A hopelessly terrible plot...not so much. That would pretty much require scrapping 90% of the novel, and the very idea of putting in all that work only to do it all over again...bah.

My plotting process, such as it is, cannot be successfully completed in 30 days. I need at least six months. I don't know exactly how things work in the cobweb-strewn attic that is my brain, but when I let it do its thing, everything falls into place. If I give myself time to let my subconscious work, to put all the pieces into place without any real conscious effort on my part, then it does the job. Or at least, it makes a somewhat coherent plot structure that uses all the elements I tossed into the first 3/4 of the novel for just that sake. I can't necessarily say it's truly successful, since I remain, as I like to put it, gloriously unpublished.

Example: With Grim Light, a novel I was never sure I could complete from the very beginning, I reached a point of true despair about two days before I finished the book. I looked at everything I'd written so far and saw no way in which to resolve it all, no way for my heroine to get out alive. still truly human, and somewhat happy. No. Way. Whatsoever. So I set the book aside for a few days, struggling with the idea that it may not actually get finished. I didn't wrack my brain, didn't brainstorm--none of that. I just set it aside and brooded.

Then it happened. I sat back down to write, determined to give it my all, and finished the book in one night. I like to use the cooking metaphor: If I let everything simmer for a while on low heat, I get a (to me, at least) wonderful resolution with a few twists and turns that even I didn't see coming. But NaNo...NaNo is like broiling or microwaving. Everything happens very quickly, and there's no time for all the elements to coalesce into a delicious whole.

That's right, people. I'm a freaking Crock Pot.

Anyhow, so, that's that. I will eventually come back to that novel and try again, but it needs some time to sit by itself in the corner and think about what it's done. Then, when it's ready to apologize, maybe we'll talk.

In the meantime, I'm now in the editing and revision stages for Grim Light. Yesterday, I found a massive plot hole--okay, more like an epic failure of logic on my part--that I'm still trying to fix. As a whole, I feel the book will take more than one serious pass to get it to where I want it, but that's nothing new. I hope to be querying by April, though. I'm going to throw myself into this with everything I've got. Because I'm chomping at the bit to start on my next idea, which will be somewhat of a departure for me in terms of setting, theme, and voice. I'm projecting that this novel will take about two years from first page to final edit. It's going to be tricky, but I love the idea and I can't wait to get started.

In a future post, maybe even today, look for website and book recommendations for editing and revising. This should, I hope, be especially helpful to the first time NaNo-ers out there. I know one in particular that I promised this information to, and hopefully others will benefit from it as well.

Because that's what I'm here for, folks. Just here to help. And, you know, whine. It's a strange mixture.

*Don't get me wrong, I'm a big Koontz fan from way back. It's more the "1995" part that is the insult.

NaNoWriMo Quirks, or: Wherein Our Author Cracks Herself Up

One interesting effect of NaNo is the increase in the reviewing comments I make to myself as I'm writing. Since, for the most part, it's all going straight from my brain to the page in a big messy sprawl of words, and I have some serious OCD issues, I can't let some things go by without commenting on them. If I'm honest with myself, it's because I'm afraid I'll miss them when I'm revising. Some examples:

• One of my main characters didn't have a last name. For his first full-name mention, I just called him "Cameron Lastname." The comment linked to this says, "Um...yeah. He needs one." This got especially fun when his parents came on the scene, and it was "Mr. Lastname did this" and "Mrs. Lastname did that" left and right. Find and replace will be my savior on this one.
• A serious NaNoism (read: awful, typo-ridden sentence that you refuse to fix because doing so will decrease your word count): "Our toes, resting at an angle on the porch floot,* pushed back and forth to move the swing gently back and forth." I'll leave you to ponder the beauty of that sentence all on your own, but of course I had to leave a comment for myself, because obviously I might miss such a rotten sentence when editing...
  
• "She lifted the lid of my old jewelry box, setting off a tinkling rendition of Some Song That Would Play On A Jewelry Box." Really famous song, yo. Bet I've got it in your head now. Of course I had to point this out to myself.
  
• Next to a truly horrid metaphor, which I refuse to share because it's just. That. Bad.: "Dear lord. Really? REALLY?!"
  
• I kind of dropped a character for, oh, 50 pages or so, then brought her back out of nowhere. My narrator said, "With all the chaos swirling around my life, I'd completely forgotten about my tenuous alliance with What's-Her-Name." I said: "Or maybe the author completely forgot because she's been dropping plot threads left and right. Who knows. Could go either way."
  
• Couldn't find the word I was looking for, so just put in a word that I truly hate, "verve". Comment: "AGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH this is horrid."
  
• I unleashed the critic in me on one of my narrator's particularly heartbreaking statements: "Bah. Inane, trite crap."
  
• When my narrator was cooking breakfast: "Can you tell the author was hungry? Mmm...potatoes." It should be known that I promptly went to the kitchen and made myself some french fries.
  
• And finally, after I said one thing in three different ways in a single sentence: "Okay, think of about five more ways, because this doesn't slam it over the reader's head quite enough."

I think it goes without saying that the editing process for this particular novel should be nothing short of hilarious. Of course, I will say it, because NaNo has made me say everything that pops into my head, and I am one wordy girl.**

*Yes, that typo was in the original sentence--and yes, I left it there.
**This doesn't flow quite right, moron. Geez. Think of another noun you can call yourself. There must be more than one.

Invisible People

Listening to: The Mountain Goats, "Alpha Rats Nest"

Sometimes, when I'm reviewing notes by beta readers, I'll have little arguments with them. Note: they are not actually, physically present during these arguments. Sometimes in my head, sometimes out loud. It goes something like this:

"No, really, it's better the way I wrote it. Just trust me on this one. Seriously. No, I don't care how much you insist, I know what I'm doing. Oh, what's that? Well, you may have a point there, but still. Well, yeah. That's true. All right, all right, fine. Have it your way."

Am I the only one? Yes? Okay. Just checking.

Off and Running

Listening to: Rise Against, "Life Less Frightening"

For several days there, I was really avoiding my revisions. Probably that whole "character motivation" thing. I had no idea how I was going to pull that off, and I knew it would be somewhat difficult, and I haven't written anything new in this novel for at least two months. That's usually a recipe for procrastination. Plus, you know...I've got Christmas coming up, and more doctor appointments than I can shake a stick at.* Fun!

But I finally settled down and skimmed through the MS a few nights ago, searching for the perfect spot to slip in something--I wasn't really sure what, yet--to explain my antagonist's actions. We see so little of her, since the novel is written in first person from the protagonist's POV (natch). So I sat down and thought--who do her actions hurt the most? Then I brainstormed until I came up with a reason, something from her past, that would make her hate that person/group. And I wrote it.

Easy as that.

It might not be any good...I don't know, I'm too close to it just yet. It might totally disrupt the flow. It might just suck. Gotta give it some time, then look at it again.

But in the meantime, I've shaken off the procrastination and am off and running with the revisions. The big, hard part is over, and now I have a hundred little things and ten medium sized things to fix.

Lesson for next time: Get the tough part out of the way first, and the rest will follow.

_____________
Going to a reunion show for my friends' band tonight, which should be really fun. Maybe a hockey game tomorrow. And lots of cleaning and maybe even some baking in the meantime. So, what are your plans for the weekend? Anything fun on the menu?


*But I finally got some good news last week--I have no cavities! My 6-month cleanings and teeth checkups are always a source of anxiety, because I've heard two-digit numbers and the word "cavities" in close proximity before. And I have three crowns. But for once, I walked out of the dentist's office and knew I didn't have to come back for six whole months! It's funny...they know me so well there, because they used to see me so much...they know how many siblings I have, that I'm a writer, what I write, and mine & TH's nickname for the dentist ("McDrilly"--they always used to talk about Gray's Anatomy while working on my teeth). They freaking know me. Maybe this little break will give them a chance to forget....

Meme Time

I decided to stick around. I like this too much to stop.
___________________

Tia did this meme yesterday, and I thought maybe I would follow suit and do it today.

1. Do you outline?
Not in any great detail, no. If I start feeling stuck or blocked, I might sketch out possible routes, but I generally just write. When I get to the end of a scene, I just ask myself, "Okay, now what?"

2. Do you write straight through a book, or do you sometimes tackle the scenes out of order?
Always straight through. I don't have the kind of brain that can do things out of order.

3. Do you prefer writing with a pen or using a computer?
Oh, dear lord, PEN!! I love handwriting. Love the feel, love the look of the words, love it all. But I'm trying to wean myself off the inky devil and go straight to computer--so much faster, so much less waste.

4. Do you prefer writing in first person or third?
That's a really tough one. It truly depends on the story I'm telling, but both have their highs and lows. I think my voice is stronger in first person, but third allows that narrative disconnect that lets you play with the reader. So, I'm gonna wuss out and say...BOTH.

5. Do you listen to music while you write?
Yes. Music (that I like) energizes me when I'm writing and helps me tune out the world. I even create playlists of songs that I feel "go with" whatever book I'm writing. That, however, might actually be the answer to "Do you procrastinate?"

6. How do you come up with the perfect names for your characters?
Baby name sites + Phone book. And sometimes I use friends' last names for secondary characters.

7. When you're writing, do you ever imagine your book as a television show or movie?
Not really.

8. Have you ever had a character insist on doing something you really didn't want him/her to do?
Well, see. I'm that person who gets really into movies and books, and cringes and cries out when the protagonist does something embarrassing or stupid ("The Office" has given me wrinkles). So I never want my characters to do stupid, embarrassing things...but if they didn't make mistakes, it wouldn't be much of a story, would it? So....yeah. Either the character insists, or the story insists.

9. Do you know how a book is going to end when you start it?
Sort of...not really. I have ideas for the ending, but those are likely to change a lot as I write. My current project seems very fluid...I've come up with about ten possible endings for it. We'll see when we get there, won't we?

10. Where do you write?
Anywhere. Denny's, the dining room table, the porch, the car (when I'm not driving, of course).

11. What do you do when you get writer's block?
Brainstorm. Read. Listen to music.

12. What size increments do you write in (either in terms of word count, or as a percentage of the book as a whole)?
I usually write between 1000-2000 words at a time--when I'm handwriting. The computer, at least now, is different. It's like every freakin' word is painful, and I keep checking the word count to see if I can stop yet. *Sigh*.

13. How many different drafts did you write for your last project?
Let's see...first draft written, second draft typed, revised twice, then revisions based on CP's suggestions, so...A MILLION.

14. Have you ever changed a character's name midway through a draft?
I'm thinking about doing it right now.

15. Do you let anyone read your book while you're working on it, or do you wait until you've completed a draft before letting someone else see it?
Completed draft, usually. And I only discuss the story in detail with my husband until it's finished. Until I write "The End", that baby's MINE.

16. What do you do to celebrate when you finish a draft?
Ha! Strawberry margaritas and The Sims 2. All. Day. Long. I'm hoping to finish this draft right around the time the next expansion pack comes out, like I did with the last book.

17. One project at a time, or multiple projects at once?
I only write one project at a time, but right now I'm writing my third novel and preparing query materials for my second.

18. Do your books grow or shrink in revision?
Grow.

19. Do you have any writing or critique partners?
I have a CP I got through Pennwriters, who is awesome and not afraid to call me out. I also have my husband, who reads through and makes a few notes, and my friend Chris, who does the same. Both of them are awesome, as well. And then there's that friend...the one I give a copy to every time, who promises to read it and give feedback, but never does. You know who you are, even if you're probably not reading this. =P

20. Do you prefer drafting or revising?
That depends. When I near the end of a novel, I can't wait to revise it and make it better. But when I've revised about 20,000 words, I'm sick of it.

That's it. Now I gotta do my short synopsis...finished the long one yesterday, so this is the last step. Tomorrow, I query!

-K.

Running in Circles, Chasing My Tail (Tale?)

This query letter business is getting old.

I typed up one version, then took it to a few literary-minded friends. They looked it over and gave me suggestions. One recommended I change "harrowing choice" to "impossible choice". I did so.

I changed lots more, set it aside for a bit, then changed some more stuff. Today, I sent it to The Husband to inspect.

"I don't like 'impossible choice,'" he said. His reasoning--perfectly sound, I think--was that an impossible choice is just that. If it's so impossible, then how does she make a choice in the next sentence?

Very well. I searched about for the right word to describe the situation.

"Harrowing! A harrowing choice!" I said, thrilled to have found the perfect word. Twenty minutes later, as I tried to spruce up another section, I pulled out the original, marked-up version. Harrowing is crossed out, with "impossible" written underneath it.

And that's when I realized...I'm running in circles.

From the Title to the Plot...

Okay. So, as I careen towards the finish line on my first editing pass, I've been fretting about the idea for my next book. I can't help it. I just feel like the idea...isn't what I want. It's good (maybe), and I could make it interesting (I think). But I don't want it.

The other subject of frequent fretting has been the title of my current book. I don't think it's very good...and that might have something to do with the fact that IT'S NON-EXISTENT. Yep, that's right. I came up with the idea in April, started writing it in May, finished in November, and have been editing since then...and no title. Crap.

So I'm in the shower yesterday, and I'm thinking about titles. Just running stuff through my head, thinking about the book and what it's about, free-associating a little bit.

And I come up with a title.

But not for the current book.

I think of this title, and a plot immediately springs into my head, nearly fully formed. The title would be perfect for that plot...it's beautiful. It's spectacular. It's...probably already been done.

So I don't let myself get too excited. I finish showering, dry off, and dress. Then I dash off to the laptop, reminding myself that it's such a great idea, someone must have come up with it already. And they must have used my title, too, because the title is so damn perfect. There could be NO OTHER TITLE for this book.

Hop onto Amazon.

Nope. Free and clear.

So there you have it. I did the happy dance as I dried my hair (the cat was not amused). Heck, I've been doing the happy dance for about 24 hours now, because I think I can do it, and I can't wait to start. I still have no title for my current book, but...

Oh well!

I'm off to edit, because the sooner I finish the current, untitled work, the sooner I can start on the next one. I'm not going to rush the editing, because it'll take as long as it needs to take...

But I'm going to get it done. And then, in the new year, I'll start working on the next one. Which I finally have.

Happy dance!

-Kristin

Professional Decision Makers

One of my friends recently said, "Writers are professional decision makers." He got the quote from somewhere else, not sure where--but it's true no matter where it originated. Every word, sentence, paragraph, scene, chapter break...whose POV do I use here? What's going to happen next? What's her motivation? Is it strong enough to make her do that? Should that character die?

Decisions, decisions, decisions. Some of them easy, some of them not. And in some of them, you don't get any say, like when a character does something you didn't plan for...and you realize it's just what they were supposed to do.

After last night, I'm realizing that revising and editing are very much the same as writing. The difference is that you can't ignore the questions and say, "I'll worry about it when I revise...."

Most of the decisions are smaller-scale, of course...Should I break apart those two independent clauses into two sentences? Should I move this scene? What's that damn word I'm looking for? Should I back off on the foreshadowing? Should I take out that adverb, or leave it there?

In short: erg.

And making so many decisions can be exhausting. I was brain-dead after 45 pages last night. I never wanted to think again.

And this morning, just like when I start writing something, I can't wait to get my grubby little hands on it. I'm approaching the middle/muddle, during which I'm going to have to make MANY changes, some of them big ones that require a great deal of thought. And yet, I can't wait.

Have to edit!

-Kristin B.

And the bloodletting begins...

...although, not really.

I'm starting the revisions early. Normally, I wait at least a few weeks so that I can get some distance, blah blah blah. And it's true what they say about taking time away...when I look at stuff I wrote a few years ago, I can see so many places that need improvement. Vast improvement. HUGE improvement.

But one thing I didn't do so hot this time was my worldbuilding. As I neared the end, I realized that my world needed a lot more...well...building. Things weren't clear enough, they weren't making enough sense, etc. And that's something that I feel I'll do better when I'm closer to the manuscript. No true editing, just yet...just getting in the things I didn't on the first pass.

This has nothing to do with the fact that I have the idea already in hand for my next book. Nothing to do with the fact that the excitement stirs in my stomach every time I think about it. And I don't do two books at a time, at least not yet. Without any true deadline, if I started my next novel while the last one still needed editing...well, it might take me a while to get back to it. Until the excitement for the new one starts to falter. Then I would go back and edit the last one, and in the meantime, I would fall away from the new one. You see where this is going, right?

Yes, I think too much. I know. I'm a writer, it's what we do.

Off to revise.

-Kristin B.