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Posts Tagged ‘revisions’

Second Drafts

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , on June 15, 2011| 2 Comments »

I’m cooking right along on the second draft of SEVEN STARS. In fact, I’m about twice as far right now as the goal I set myself for this week (Friday-Thursday. I update my goals once a week on Fridays on Hatrack River Writer’s Workshop and once a month on Farland’s Writers Groups.) That’s good in a lot of ways.

What I call second drafts usually take two or three passes because I’m looking for different things.

  • On the first pass I’m usually fixing or adding things I knew I left out on the first draft. Sometimes, that’s because I had trouble with a particular scene so I just told it, made a note to fix it, and moved on. The first draft is just about getting the story down, not about getting all the fine details perfect. Sometimes, it’s something else that I noted in the first draft–a large chunk of dialog that would need to be broken up with some beats and some internal thoughts. And sometimes it’s something that I discovered was more important than I expected later in the first draft and so I knew I needed to do a bit of foreshadowing earlier. This pass can take some time, because there’s often a lot of new writing in it.
  • Sometimes, the second pass is aimed at the side characters, especially the antagonist. My first draft tends to be very protagonist-centric. There’s a little, but not too much of that in this story since the antagonists tend to be less tangible. So, this time, that pass got rolled in with the next.
  • The next pass is more detailed, but still might go faster. I’m looking for places where I need more internal thoughts or more description. I’m also smoothing out places that might feel a little rough to me. New material gets added here, too (I’m about to write a new scene when I get back to work, now.), but less than in the first pass.

After all of that, hopefully, the story is as good as I can make it until I get some feedback on what works–and what doesn’t–from my alpha readers. That’s scheduled for next month.

 

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Diving Back into Seven Stars

Posted in writing, tagged , , , on June 8, 2011| 2 Comments »

After a bit of an interruption for MAGE STORM, following Agents Day, I worked finished working through the rough draft of SEVEN STARS. Then I took a little break to get caught up on some critique-driven revisions on BLOOD WILL TELL and DREAMER’S ROSE and worked on a couple of short stories. That gave me a little space.

Now, I’m about to plunge back into SEVEN STARS and barely come up for air for the next three weeks or so. The plan is to have it ready for readers in July. Looking through my notes, that shouldn’t be too hard. I don’t have all that many notes this time around.

There are a few things I want to add or develop further and one thing I want to tone down a bit. I may end up adding a chapter or two.

The manuscript is still a tad short at only 65,000 words. On the other hand, I’d rather be in that position than have to cut 10% to 20%. (Been there. Done that. Not much fun.)

The only things I foresee interrupting the flow on SEVEN STARS this time would be possibly a little more work on this quarters Writers of the Future entry and maybe a little pre-writing work on my next projects.

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Revisions, Revisions, Revisions

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , on May 25, 2011| 7 Comments »

First off, and apropos of today’s topic, for those who may have tried the link in my post about Agents Day and wondered what I was talking about: Agent Natalie M. Fischer published her speech from Agents Day about revisions on her blog this week. Some interesting tips. Check it out.

Revisions. I’m surrounded by them at the moment. Finalizing revisions on MAGE STORM before I send it off. Working on the second draft of SEVEN STARS so I can have it ready for alpha readers in July. Making revisions based on the latest critique of BLOOD WILL TELL. Oh, and I need to make revisions to my Writer’s of the Future entry for this quarter. AND, if I can find the time, there’s another story I’d like to take a crack at for a writing challenge on Hatrack River Writers Workshop. (The original version of the story didn’t really work, but the premise is perfect for the challenge.) So, it looks like the next month or so is going to be pretty much dedicated to revisions.  Good thing I don’t mind.

I actually enjoy the second draft process. It’s almost like doing a first draft at times because I generally add so much new material. A story usually grows by about a third during the second draft. I’m in the middle of a new scene in SEVEN STARS right now.

Along about July, while SEVEN STARS is out to first readers, I expect to start taking a serious look at my alternate history story THE BARD’S GIFT (novelization of my short story of the same title). Still a lot of research to do for that one, as well as laying out the basic plot. I’ve never done alternate history. It should be fun.

Now back to that scene. Tiaran’s third battle and second failure. Got to rattle his confidence a bit. Can’t let your characters get to cocky–or too comfortable.

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Backstory

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , on May 22, 2011| 2 Comments »

Backstory is an important part of world building for speculative fiction. It’s the history of how your world and your characters got to be where they are when the story opens. Some stories have a lot of backstory, like Tolkien’s LORD OF THE RINGS. Others have less. But all have some.

The real question isn’t how much backstory you have, but how much you actually put into the novel. Some things, it’s important for me to know but may never be important enough to tell the reader. Too much, unless you’re Tolkien, can drag the story down and kill the pace. But too little backstory can be just as big a problem because you can leave the reader without enough information to undertand the world and what’s happening in it.

How much and where to introduce the backstory is another issue. Trying to avoid the dreaded infodump or an “as you know, Bob” bit of dialog can be tricky. I try to reveal the world in a learn-as-you-go fashion in my stories, so I’m wrestling a bit with exactly where and how much–and how–to reveal backstory in three of my novels right now. Internal monologue can do some of it, especially if I can combine it with some inner conflict of the point-of-view character.

  1. MAGE STORM may need just a little more of the recent history brought out, but I want to be very careful not to slow the pace too much. It’s a delicate balance.
  2. According to at least one reader of BLOOD WILL TELL, a part of the backstory that I expunged in an earlier draft may need to be brought back in. (You can see that bit under Worlds/Chimeria). I could just put that back, but I’m trying to find a better way to ease the information in.
  3. The first draft of SEVEN STARS also has a few lengthy bits of dialog. At least, it’s not “as you know, Bob” because two characters from very different backgrounds are explaining things the other doesn’t know. Of course, first drafts are only meant to get the story down so I can fix it later. I’m going to have to look for a better way to get some of it out as I work through the revisions.

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Switching Gears

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , on May 18, 2011| Leave a Comment »

After Agents Day, I switched my focus back to MAGE STORM, naturally. I’ve just completed a read through with minor revisions. I didn’t find too much that needed changing to meet the agent’s questions from the synopsis. I did try to bring out a couple of things a little more and trimmed a little from the middle. I want to go over that middle section again and then suck in a deep breath and send it off.

I still need to go over the new query again and take a serious look at that synopsis.

Then, I need to get back to my priorities from before Agents Day, mainly the second draft of SEVEN STARS and a revision to my quarter three Writers of the Future entry, if I can get it done in time. I’ve got some serious brainstorming to do on that one. I need to find a way to make the magic system a little more new and unique, if I can. Oh, and there are revisions to BLOOD WILL TELL, too.

And critiques to do, as usual.

Well, whatever else happens, I’m not going to be bored.

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Skipping Around

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , on May 4, 2011| 2 Comments »

One of the advantages to working on a second draft is you don’t have to go in any particular order. I know some people write first drafts out of order, working on whatever is most exciting first. Since I’m about two-thirds discovery writer, it really works best for me to tackle the first draft from beginning to end.

On the second draft, though, I already know the story. I’ve got some notes in it for things I want to change, add, build up, etc. And now I can take them in any order. I still usually try to work from beginning to end, but if I find myself getting stuck anywhere, I can easily just skip to another chapter.

So, that’s what I’ve been doing on SEVEN STARS. I got a little stuck on exactly how I want to handle something with my first point-of-view character, so I skipped to the other. (This story has two point-of-view characters.)

In some ways, at least for me, second drafts are almost as much fun as first drafts. And they are first drafts, at least in part, because the manuscript usually grows by about a third.

Later revisions, not so much.

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Transitions

Posted in writing, tagged , , on April 27, 2011|

I’m in that transition phase. I finished up the revision on BLOOD WILL TELL, at least until I can get a reader or two. I’m ready to start the second draft of SEVEN STARS. The problem is, it just takes me a couple of days to get my head out of one story and into the other.

So, during the transition, I’ve been working a little on  polishing up the start of SEVEN STARS, but I’ve also been working on a few other things.

  1. I polished up “Heart of Oak”, cut about 300 words (not as many as I wanted to, but as many as I felt I could) and sent it out again. It had been sitting on my hard drive for almost a month. Not going to find a home that way. At 9500 words, there aren’t that many appropriate markets for this one. It may turn out to be my first e-published story later this year.
  2. I’ve worked on my query for MAGE STORM. This is actually going to work out well, since it appears one of my writer’s forums will have a query challenge next month. I’m not actually planning on sending out any more queries until the middle of May. That’s when I go to my second-ever writer’s event. Agents Day, hosted by the local chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. I’ll be getting a critique of the beginning of MAGE STORM there. Might as well wait and see what I can polish up before the next round of queries.
  3. I’m looking over another short story, “The Bard’s Gift” to see if I can polish it up a little before sending it back out again. It’s been sitting on my hard drive almost as long as “Heart of Oak”.

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The End Is in Sight

Posted in writing, tagged , , , on April 24, 2011| Leave a Comment »

I have only three chapters to go to complete this revision of BLOOD WILL TELL.  Woo Hoo!  I have to say, I’m ready to finish it. This revision turned into a more extensive near-rewrite than I had originally planned. I think the story is stronger. At least, I certainly hope so.

I will definitely need to recruit a reader or two with no previous knowledge of the story to go over it and make sure it still makes sense.

Among other things, I deleted almost all of the scenes/chapters from the point of view of the antagonist. I decided that knowing so much about what he was attempting was making him seem more bumbling than threatening. Because, of course, I couldn’t let him succeed in killing off the main characters. That would have brought the story to a rather abrupt and premature end. Besides, I’m a sucker for HEA (Happily Ever After). 

I also added some scenes late in the story to give a previously insipid character a chance to shine. It comes late, she’s still pretty wishy-washy at the beginning of the story, but that’s deliberate. She needs some things to happen to her before she can really start to shine.  If and when I get to the sequel (and that story has been rising in my mind, lately), she’ll get a bigger part.

And I redid the climax so that there’s a reversal (which should have been there all along, of course). A character who didn’t die before, does now. (Don’t worry, I didn’t mess up the HEA ending.) That, hopefully, adds more tension and suspense to the ending. It really shouldn’t feel like a foregone conclusion that the heroes will win.

All that and a host of small corrections and improvements along the way.

So now to finish up those last three chapters and get ready to start on the second draft of SEVEN STARS. I’m starting to get an itch to get back to that story.

HAPPY EASTER

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Plot Holes

Posted in writing, tagged , , , on April 17, 2011| Leave a Comment »

One of the things that will happen as you work your way through a revision like the one I’m doing on BLOOD WILL TELL is that you’ll find a plot hole or two. That happened to me in Chapter 25.

Well, let’s not call it a hole, exactly, but the weave is definitely a bit looser there. Only one reader called me on it, but even one reader thrown out of the story because something seems unbelievable or too much of a coincidence is one too many.  So, I’ve spent the last day or so brainstorming how else to get my characters from one point to the next.

I think I’ve come up with a solution that will work at least as well, if not better. And doesn’t cause as many questions. That’s a good feeling.

So many things have been moved, deleted, or changed in this revision that I am definitely going to need a reader or two, somebody unfamiliar with the story, to make sure that it all still makes sense. I know all the plot turns, so I can’t do it.

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Working on Multiple Projects

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , on April 13, 2011| Leave a Comment »

My primary writing task right now is the revision to BLOOD WILL TELL. That’s been going very well–nine chapters in just the last four days. But I’m a believer in Kevin J. Anderson’s Tip #4 for Writing Productivity (among others), so I’m rarely working on just one thing.

Tip #4 is to have multiple projects in different phases. The different kinds of effort don’t conflict because you’re using different parts of your brain and being able to switch off when you hit a sticking point or just get tired of one thing keeps you working on your writing, not surfing the internet.

So, my main task is this revision, but at the same time, I’m:

  1. Brainstorming and doing some research on the next story (THE BARD’S GIFT).
  2. Getting ready to start the second draft of SEVEN STARS.
  3. Working on selling the last completed story (MAGE STORM). Right now, that means reworking the query and synopsis for another round of submissions.
  4. Making various revisions to three short stories.
  5. Making decisions about what to do with an older story (DREAMER’S ROSE).
  6. Preparing for the Agents Day event next month.
  7. And doing a number of critiques. In fact, I expect the number of critiques to begin picking up dramatically next week when the first round of exchanges for the Hatrack River Writers Workshop WotF Critique Group starts up.

Sometimes these things dovetail in unexpected ways. For the Agents Day, I had to reduce my one-and-a-half page synopsis for MAGE STORM to a single page. That was in interestng exercise in itself and not one I probably would have forced myself to do otherwise. But, like writing elevator pitches, it forces you to concentrate on what’s really important and what’s a distraction 0r at best a subplot.

And the elevator pitch for MAGE STORM has made me concentrate more on what’s key in that story. I think I carried the last query pitch too far into the story, so that gives me ideas on what to change in the next round.

Gotta love synergy.

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