Reeeeeeeeeeevision...

Listening to: The Thermals, "Now We Can See"

I picture a couple of yodelers calling that post title out from a mountaintop like in the old Ricola commercials.

Okaaaay...moving on.

Finished the first draft of PINK BANDANA GIRLS last week. Damn, did that feel good. All told, it took me just as many months to write as most of my first drafts (between five and seven)...except those months were spread out over a year and a half, and I worked on GRIM LIGHT, its revisions, and a few other ideas in between.

So now I'm getting ready to revise. Judging by The Husband's* reaction to the first third or so, it starts off a little too slow, so I need to throw some more conflict in there. I have a few good ideas for that.

But what I've really needed was a good synopsis. So I opened up yWriter, which I've had on this laptop and my last and never actually got around to using. I think it's going to be a huge part of my revision process from now on, though. Here's why:

yWriter has a chapter and scene breakdown feature, which essentially requires you to summarize everything. You can make files on characters, locations, and items, and insert them into each scene in which they appear. You can specify the date a scene took place and how long it lasted, as well as whether the scene involves the plot or subplot, is action or reaction. You can rate several different elements--relevance, tension, humor, etc.**

All of this was huge, and as I went along I picked up on several places where I didn't have enough conflict, or where a plot thread disappeared, or where a character acted...well, out of character. You can make notes on specific scenes or the whole project, and then you can make yWriter draw up a report using several options.

It's beautiful, in short.

It allowed me to do something very important for revisions, I think: see my story both as a big picture and on a detail level.

And now I'm ready. I'm pretty excited about it, too. I want to make this story good, dangit!

So, two things to take away from this post:

1. yWriter: highly recommended
2. It's revision time!
   

*He's the only one who gets to read stuff before I revise. That poor soul, he had NO idea what he was getting into when he married me...

**You can also change what elements you rate. For instance, if you're writing a romantic thriller, you might want to rate romance/sexual tension instead of humor.

Return to Revisionland

Listening to: Damien Rice, "Cannonball"

The betas have spoken.

When you hear the same comment from several people on a major aspect of your story, you pretty much have to listen. Eventually. After like, the sixth person says it. Maybe.

I've struggled a lot with this particular aspect, which was having my protagonist (Freya) in first person and chapters from my antagonist's (Grigory) POV in third person--then first person--then third person again (through multiple revisions, not varying within the novel itself). I knew I was taking a risk with it--it's done by some authors, yes, but not terribly often, and it's a rarity in YA. I have about 25 books on the YA shelf of my bookcase, and only one series out of all those books does this. Although in that case, the POV varies between first person for the protagonist and third person for secondary characters.

So yeah, it was a risk. And I fought a lot with it, as is clear from the fact that I kept on changing Grigory's POV. In third he was wooden; in first he had more personality but I felt it was confusing for the reader; when I moved it to third again, I felt I'd nailed it--he had personality, but I made sure the reader knew in each of his chapters that it was from his POV.

But after so many comments about it--none of them really negative, just uncertain and concerned--I decided to do something.* And I realized that I was being an idiot. A really, really big idiot. The whole reason I had multiple POVs was due to a rule I created that Grigory couldn't approach Freya until a certain thing had happened.

Um, hello, McFly. If you create the rules, you can change them.

So I'm restructuring the whole damn thing. Grigory appears in Freya's life by the second chapter, and it's all from her POV. His method of getting what he wants from her, or trying to, is going to be markedly different. He's going to be more hands-on, sneakier, more manipulative.

And so far, I love it. I'm loving being back in Freya's head again. I feel like this adds a new element to the story, a deeper element to Freya's character and her journey, and more suspense and mystery to the plot.

Of course, it's also ridiculously complicated. I'm performing surgery here, people. This is the most complex revision I've ever taken. I like a good challenge, though.

To keep track of when and where all the changes are taking place and how my plot will change, I needed some kind of storyboard/timeline, though. I couldn't just go in there willy-nilly and move this and that, add, subtract, and whammo.

So I went into Word and started having fun with text boxes. This is what I came up with:



It's small and blurred--don't want to give away my plot--but you can see what I've done. One line for Grigory, one for Freya. Red boxes are scenes that need to be added. Red text represents things that need changed within existing scenes. Text in gray is stuff that happens off camera, so to speak. The arrows are sort of cause and effect, more to keep my mind clear and connect various incidents than anything. The scenes on the line, obviously, are scenes in which Freya and Grigory appear together.

I'm about halfway done with the whole thing. It's taking up every spare second, as I want to get this thing done already. But I've learned something really important: be flexible. Not just when my betas are concerned (I learned that a long time ago), but also in the initial writing.

If I'd just decided to change that one silly, unnecessary rule when I first realized I had a problem, I wouldn't be in this mess to begin with.

One last thing, before I go back to my revisions. After almost every reader commented on this particular aspect, and after I really dug into the revisions, another friend finished reading. He told me at the bar on Saturday, and we started talking about his thoughts. I asked him what he thought of the varying POVs (clearly, he was reading the pre-revision version).

"I loved it!" he said.**

Head, meet desk. Oh wait--you've met before? Ah, yes. You're good friends. No introductions needed, then.



*Tia was the straw that broke the stubborn writer's back. Hear that, Tia? You're a straw! =)

**This is why I kept a copy of the previous version. Just in case I either change my mind or mess it up entirely. I'm not stupid, yanno.

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!

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.

When the Voices Won't Stop

Listening to: Chronic Future, "Shellshocked"

There. After a week of polishing and shining and finding typos, and sweating over this manuscript, it's off to the editor who requested it at the conference.

I made many changes, not any huge ones but several that fixed some minor problems people brought to my attention,* and quite a few that make me feel like this thing is as good as it's gonna get anytime soon.

All these changes required me to dive back into the book, and into my protagonist's head, with full force. I was concerned, at first, that I would find this difficult. HA! I'm so funny. Because I had the opposite problem. Once I got started, I couldn't get her voice out of my head. All week, she's been talking and talking, giving me bits of dialog and narration that weren't there before. Verbose little brat, my protagonist.

Every time I was in the car or the shower, there she was. I woke up this morning to her voice, as she gave me a few last bits to put into the manuscript before I sent it out. She just wouldn't shut up.

So now I have her voice in my head, and I figure I may as well use it. I think I'll get back to work on book two this weekend, since none of the projects I've tried to start in the past few months have really panned out. I've always been against starting a sequel when you don't know if the first one even has a chance--it seems like such a waste of time to me. But this book changed all that, because I really want to write more of this character's story.

And if nothing else, it'll distract me from the waiting game that has begun, yet again. Distractions--I need them.


*Thanks Tia!

Typos

Listening to: Yellowcard, "Miles Apart"

No matter how many times I and other people read through my manuscript, I still stumble upon typos when I go over it again.

Beautiful, wondrous typos that make me burst into laughter at 4 a.m., like this gem:

"...his breath sent an electric sock down my spine."

Teehee. Better hope your feet don't sweat when you wear that electric sock. Oh, this writing stuff never gets old.

I'm almost done with one final pass on the manuscript, and then it's off to the editor who requested it last Saturday. Fingers crossed, everyone--even though you won't be getting updates if they're negative, 'cause this is a happy place.

A happy place full of fantastic typos.