Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘revisions’

Revision Fun

Posted in writing, tagged , , , on April 6, 2011| Leave a Comment »

It sounds like an oxymoron: revision fun. But there are parts of the revision process that can be fun. One of those is when you essentially get to go back into first draft mode to add something or significantly change something.

The first thing I did on this revision of BLOOD WILL TELL was write most of a new first chapter. Along the way, I’ve added or added to a couple of scenes and changed some until they’re almost unrecognizable.

Now I’ve come to a place where I essentially get to add a new chapter again. I killed virtually al of the existing chapter (I think about a paragraph may remain.) and redid it with a totally different idea.  Some of this was necessary because of other changes I was making, some was generated by comments from one of my readers, and some was just the new ideas that comment sparked.

The new chapter will probably need its own little revision. I think it’s too heavy on interior monologue and a bit short on action right now. But I really like the idea.

This is now the first real introduction of my antagonist, at about a third of the way through the story. (He’s been seen before, but without revealing his role.) 

One of the things I had decided on this revision was that I had spent too much time in the antagonist’s point of view. By showing his repeated attempts to kill the protagonists, I ended up making him look a little bumbling and kept him from being a credible threat at the climax. Of course the protagonists have to squirm out of his traps. If he succeeds in killing them the story would end a bit prematurely. But showing him plotting and gnashing his teeth over his failures emphasized them a little too much.

One of my great readers suggested at this particular point that the antagonist could succeed or partly succeed, because at the moment he’s not trying to kill the protagonists, just steal something. That got me thinking, which is one of the greatest things a critique can do for you (thanks, Robin). I came up with a way for him to succeed, but not realize it.

Then I had a wild inspiration out of nowhere to include a character that died very early in the story as a ghost. This is a whole new element in the story and it impacts a later scene in the same location as well.

Best of all, it makes working on this part of the revision a whole lot more fun.

Read Full Post »

Character Revelations.

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , on April 3, 2011| 2 Comments »

Well, after David Farland’s pep talk last week on “How to Sell Your Novel”, I’ve decided to give BLOOD WILL TELL another try through the traditional channels, after the revisions of course. E-publishing isn’t going away. It will still be there–maybe better and easier–when I’m ready.  (I probably will still stick a toe in those waters with a couple of short stories. We’ll see.)

Revisions on BLOOD WILL TELL continue roughly on schedule, if not as fast as I would really like. Still, all things considered. . .  Yesterday, I finished changing one transition into a scene and well, I don’t think the other quite comes up to the level of a scene, but I at least dug deeper. I wrote one whole new scene and added material to another. Not a bad day’s work.

Those additions are mostly for the purpose of showing earlier exactly what is driving my main character. Not only her main motivations, but her fears and the things that she believes (some of which will turn out not to be true). All good and necessary things.

And as I work on these scenes from the beginning, I’m working out some revelations about my characters. The critiques helped me see some things in a new light. I think I sufficiently tortured my main character, but I may have been a bit too easy on my side characters. The love interest gets tortured for a while, too. But his transformation may be just a bit too easy. And, darn it, it’s a source of conflict which I wasted. Can’t let that happen. They ought to have at least one good argument over it and let him think he’s losing her again, before he finally finds the way to change.

I’m still struggling a bit with the sidekick. I’ve tried to give her a little more rounding in the early chapters, but I don’t know if I’ve succeeded, yet. I’ve got a scene coming up later today (hopefully) that I’m going to recast into her point of view. I actually haven’t had a scene in her point of view yet. That’s something I may have to fix later. She seems weak and fragile, shy and naive to the other characters. So, of course, that’s how the reader sees her, too. To a degree, that’s what I want them to see. But to some readers she was just too useless to live. I have to fix that. This scene should give me a chance to show at least a little interior toughness and resolve.

Read Full Post »

What to Do with a Rejected Story

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , on March 30, 2011| 4 Comments »

First, I want to take a moment to acknowledge the death of Diana Wynne Jones last weekend. She was one of the truly great writers of young adult fantasy, weaving magic with her words. A very sad loss.

Second, if you haven’t checked out Farland’s Authors’ Advisory Conference Calls yet, tonight’s the night to do it. David Farland will be talking about How to Sell Your Novel.

Now, on to BLOOD WILL TELL:

I’m beginning to make good progress on my revisions, working through scene by scene. First making any changes I think are necessary, then working through the three full critiques. I’ve gotten some excellent critiques that have made me look at the story and characters in a new light. That’s invaluable. I liked this story before, but I think it’s going to be much stronger when I finish. 

My current goal is to work through a chapter a day. Some days I may get more done and some chapters or scenes may need less work. That should fill up about a month before I’m ready to return to SEVEN STARS for the second draft.

The question then becomes what to do with BLOOD WILL TELL. Last year, I sent out 34 queries on this one. I got two requests for a partial, both of which ended in rejections. That’s not a very good showing.

Now, I’ll never know for certain why all those agents chose to pass. I can’t tell if the new first chapter and the revisions to the early chapters might have gotten a better response. But in my gut I have a feeling that part of the problem is that it’s a werewolf story.

It’s only a guess, but I have a feeling that the agents and editors of traditional publishing (who have to think about a book that might hit the bookshelves of Barnes and Noble three years from now, at best) just aren’t interested in werewolf stories right now. At least, unless your name happens to be Patricia Briggs, Gail Carriger, Sherilyn Kenyon, Charlane Harris, or Stephanie Meyer. I suspect, even, that when they open their inboxes they find half a dozen werewolf or vampire stories every day and it’s just easier to hit the next button than to try to sort out which ones might be good. I know that I’ve seen at least one or two agents’ websites that said specifically something like “Please don’t send me any more werewolf stories”.

So, what to do with BLOOD WILL TELL? One option is to change the title, write a new query, and try again. Frankly, I haven’t found another title I really like. And I’m not sure it would make a difference, really. It’s still a werewolf story.

The other option that I am considering very strongly at the moment is to e-publish it myself, probably under a psuedonym. The pen name would be mostly because this story (and it’s sequels) don’t really fit with the rest of what I’m writing. It’s adult, probably new adult, and I write mostly young adult and middle grade.

It’s a decision I’m likely to take with one or two of my short stories, too. In fact, I’ll probably do the short stories first, just to test the waters.

Read Full Post »

Building Up Momentum

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , on March 27, 2011| 1 Comment »

I’m finally beginning to get a little momentum going on the revision to BLOOD WILL TELL. Very little, but even that is a vast improvement over last week. After drafting the new first chapter, I stalled out almost completely on revisions to what is now Chapter 2.

Of course some of that had more to do with real life issues than motivation, but that didn’t account for all of it. I just hadn’t built up enough enthusiasm for the project. I’m doing better, now, although it’s still going more slowly than is usual for me on a revision. I made it through Chapter 2 and halfway through Chapter 3. That’s still slow, but it’s a start.

Some of it was perhaps just hard for me to do. I think it’s just hard for me to get deep into my characters’ emotions early in a story. Like the reader and I don’t know them that well, yet. (Even when I’ve been through this story several times and I actually do know them that well.) But strong emotions are what’s going to make the reader connect with the characters. It needs to be there, right up front.

That’s actually good. It moves me out of my comfort zone. It’s the sort of thing that will get easier with practice, I hope.

I’m making progress now and hope to build some momentum. However, the great thing about revisions is there’s more than one way to approach them. Being a discovery writer, I find I really have to go through the first draft pretty much in order. After all, I’m learning the story, too and it’s just less jumbled if I tell it in order. But there’s no such requirement for revisions. I already know the story. I can take revisions in any order I choose.

I normally do do revisions in order just because it’s neater. But I don’t have to. From this point forward, if I find myself getting stuck, I can just skip to some other part of the story that I’m more excited about. Knowing that should help get me moving.

Read Full Post »

Really Seeing Your Own Story

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , on March 23, 2011| 5 Comments »

One of the biggest challenges about writing fiction is really seeing your own story, not the way it is in your head, but the way it really is on paper. Two things help with this in my experience:

  1. Critiques
  2. Time

Critiques help, obviously, because they give you insight into what someone else is finding in what you wrote. Sometimes, it isn’t what you intended. Sometimes, a critiquer will make that one comment that clarifies everything for you.

Time is the one I struggle with. I have a freakish memory that lets some things slip through like water and holds onto others like a vise. Things I’ve actually written tend to be in the latter category. This means that getting enough distance from my own writing to really see it is a problem.

I try to let things sit for a month between drafts, but that may not be enough. I’m finding that things I come back to after about a year are not as good as I remember them being.

Okay, back from the ER. (Mom has a UTI.) So, to finish my thoughts:

I found that with THE SHAMAN’S CURSE, which is what convinced me that that book (my first) just needs a complete rewrite. And I found something similar with BLOOD WILL TELL. Not, fortunately, that it needs a rewrite, but I did find more things that could just be better than I expected to.

So now the $64,000 question is: how long is long enough. A month might not be. A year seems like too long. This is definitely something I’m going to have to figure out, though.

Read Full Post »

Revision Mode

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , on March 20, 2011| 2 Comments »

I’ve successfully gotten myself into revision mode and back into the story and characters of BLOOD WILL TELL.

I’ve even drafted the new first chapter. I tried to do two things with it:

  1. Start the story off more as the urban fantasy it is.
  2. Show some of my main character’s strong emotions earlier.

I don’t know how well I’ve succeeded, yet, but that’s what first drafts are for. I’ll get a few readers in a couple of weeks (after it’s had time to sit a little and I’ve gone back over it) and then decide whether this works or if I need to do more.

I think the strong emotions are key. My main character starts out sort of bottled up, very controlled. But that’s what’s shows on the outside, not what’s really going on on the inside. I need to dig deeper and show more of her inner turmoil early in the story. She has reasons for keeping her emotions on a tight leash, but there are still things she cares deeply about. That both builds conflict and should help readers to identify more with her.

Aside from that, my goals (for now, subject to change as I get going) are to:

  1. Enhance one of the side characters. She’s shy, but, like her cousin the main character, that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have a lot going on underneath. I need to show her strengths earlier and probably give her a little more time as the point of view character.
  2. Add more suspense to the climax. Right now, it doesn’t feel enough like the good guys could really fail. I have some ideas for that.
  3. Reduce or elimate certain other points of view in the story. I think the antagonist is getting too much point of view time. It’s making him seem a little bumbling and not a serious enough threat. (See the point above.) There are a couple of other minor characters who get point of view scenes, too. I’m going to give a hard look at what I need–and don’t need–in those scenes. Some will be cut.
  4. There’s a longish section near the beginning that leaves the urban fantasy and goes off into an alternate world. I need it. But I also may need to cut it back, some.

Those are my main goals for this revision. Of course, certain specific scenes or chapters have additional goals for the action that occurs there, as well.

On to revisions.

Read Full Post »

Shifting Gears

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , on March 13, 2011| 4 Comments »

Yesterday, I finished the first draft of SEVEN STARS. Now I’ve spent a little (very little) time savoring that feeling, it’s time to shift gears.

Today, and possibly the next few days, are going to be about putting myself in a different frame of mind. SEVEN STARS needs to rest so I can approach the second draft with fresher eyes. Now I’m going to start another round of revisions on BLOOD WILL TELL (which may also get a new title in the process).

I have to drag my mind away from one set of characters that I’ve gotten to like and back to another. I need to change my focus from new writing (altough BLOOD WILL TELL will almost certainly get a new beginning) and prepare to do revisions. I have to get myself out of a second-world young adult fantasy and get into the right frame of mind for an adult urban fantasy. Piece of cake, right?

But that’s exactly what I need to do–focus on something else for a while–so I can come back to SEVEN STARS and really see it.

I’ll probably start by reading through BLOOD WILL TELL one more time. I swear there are parts I could probably quote from memory.

Read Full Post »

Writing Process, Part Two

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , on February 6, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Well, so now I have a first draft and it’s been allowed to rest for about a month.  Time to start the second draft.

For me, the “second draft” involves multiple passes.

  1. The first thing I do is to read through and take care of the notes I made during the first draft. 
  2. I know I will need to flesh out the villain and side characters.  My first draft is always very centered on the protagonist and other characters don’t get all the attention the deserve in the first round.
  3.  Depending on how fast I was writing the first draft, I may need to add descriptions.
  4. I may also need to expand on the internal monologue and indications of emotion.

The word count often grows by a third during the second draft.

Then it’s time to get some alpha readers. At this point, I’ve written it and read through it at least three times.  I’m much too close to it.  It needs fresh eyes. This also forces me to let it rest again while the readers have it. Time to work on one of those other projects for a while again.

For me, it’s most helpful to get readers who will look at the entire novel as a block at this point. They’re better able to judge pacing, among other things. 

When the comments or critiques come back from the alpha readers, it’s time for the third draft, incorporating revisions based on the readers’ comments. I admit, it’s a little daunting to have more than one set of comments on the entire book at one time. So I tend to break the work up into more manageable chunks, like a chapter at a time. On the plus side, it makes it really obvious if more than one reader highlights the same problem. Then you know you need to fix it. 

After the third draft, and while the manuscript is resting once again, I begin preparing to submit. This is when I write and polish the query letter and try to shine up the synopsis. I will look for readers and critiques on both of these, as well.  The query letter is probably the single most revised piece of writing in the whole process.

When I think I have the query letter in pretty good shape, I’ll read through one more time and do a polishing edit. This is the really nitpicky revision, looking at words and sentences rather than at the story itself. 

Depending on how extensive the revisions on the third draft were and how confident I feel, I may look for another reader or two at this point. Since I’m looking for more detailed comments, this reading works well in a chapter exchange format.

Then it’s time to take a deep breath and start submitting.

Read Full Post »

Writing Process, Part One

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , on February 2, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Every writer has their own process, their own way of approaching a story. The tough part is, we all have to figure out what it is for ourselves by just diving in and trying things.  At first, it’s just fumbling in the dark, but I think I’m starting to get a handle on what works best for me.

Some stories–notably DREAMER’S ROSE and the first attempt at SEVEN STARS–don’t seem to want to fit into this pattern, but the ones I’ve been happiest with, do.

Now, first off, I’m something of a discovery writer. Not hard core, but nearer that end of the continuum. I really find I need to identify at least three things before I can start a novel:

  1. The inciting incident.
  2. The central conflict.
  3. The climax and its resolution.

Most frequently, now, I write what I call a proto-synopsis before I start. It’s not in outline format and it doesn’t get into too much detail, which leaves me free to discover the story as I go. Besides, I’m going to need to write a synopsis sooner or later anyway. This gives me a starting point.

Next is the first draft. If it’s really flowing, I may complete the first draft in little over a month. These are usually the stories I end up liking best. 

The first draft is unidirectional–forward only.  No going back for revisions.  However, I will make notes of things that need to be done in the second draft.

  1. In order to maintain the momentum, I may have short changed a difficult scene. I may need to go back and flesh it out. This may get some sage note such as “Show don’t tell.” 
  2. I may realize that something needs to be further developed. In MAGE STORM, for example, I realized I needed to spend a little more time developing the friendships.
  3. I may insert something late in the story and realize I need to go back to foreshadow it a bit, so it doesn’t appear to fall out of the sky. In the last quarter or so of MAGE STORM, I changed what was going to be a large fish into a small water dragon. That made it necessary to go back to a couple of places earlier in the story and give some indication that such creatures might exist in this world. 

Then I try to let the story rest for a month. This is the time to work on something else. I also find that I like to follow Kevin J. Anderson’s advice to have more than one project at a time (in different phases) in order to maximize your writing time. Ideally, I’d like to have one story in development, one in first or second draft, one in revision, and one on submission. In reality, I usually don’t quite manage all of that, yet.

Next post, I’ll continue this topic.  Starting with the second draft.

Read Full Post »

Writing One of THOSE Scenes

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , on January 30, 2011| 3 Comments »

Update: Aliza is back to her bouncy, bossy usual corgi-queen-of-the-world self again.

In my revision/rewrite of DREAMER’S ROSE, I’ve come to the next place that needs a significant rewrite. Unfortunately, it’s one of those scenes. You know, where two characters first really get together. In other words, a sex scene.  Not an explicit one; I don’t write those.  It’s much more my style to sort of set up the situation, let things begin to warm up, and then figuratively draw the curtain and come back in the morning. You know, sort of pull out to a shot of waves crashing on the beach, like in the old movies. Still, there has to be enough there to let the reader know what’s not being said.

Difficult enough at the best of times. Much harder now that I’ve decided that this really should be a YA story. Not that I think sex should be completely ignored as if it doesn’t exist at all in YA stories. That’s disingenous and a discredit and disservice to the readers. They’re smarter than that.

It shouldn’t be thrown in without cause, just for the thrill of it, either of course. But where it belongs in a story, as it does in this one, it should be acknowledged. To an extent, the last third of this book doesn’t happen if this scene doesn’t happen, so I can’t just ignore it.

I think it requires a little extra delicacy, though, in an already delicate subject. It’s a difficult balance to strike.

As I sometimes do when writing difficult scenes, I’m reviewing other, published, well-regarded works for guidance. How did some of the authors I respect most handle similar situations? I’ve found my role model, I think, but not in YA literature. 

The approach, if I can pull it off, will be to go mostly to internal dialog. To focus almost exclusively on the character’s emotions.  It’s not going to be easy. I’ve already spent two days on the rewrite of this chapter and I’m not even up to the hard part, yet.

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »