Revision. I used to think that was a four-letter word
disguised as an eight-letter word. When you’ve bled 60,000 words or more and
have finally saved that first draft for the last time, you don’t really want to
think about the fact that it’s the FIRST draft and you’ve got a long road ahead
of you, rewriting the blasted thing. But if you’re serious about writing, you
know that’s exactly what you have to do.
I finished the first draft of my new novel about a month
ago. I’m pretty happy with it, but I know it needs work. I know there are weak
spots that need attention, but I decided to read Write and Revise for Publication by Jack Smith first. It’s been very
helpful, and I highly recommend it.
I’m just about ready to dive back into my draft and start
ripping it up (because I know that’s what it needs in certain places), and I
feel like Smith’s book gave me a good direction to get started. I’m going to
start with my characters.
My book is paranormal with a bit of a time travel built in. There
are parallel story lines, one taking place a little more than 100 years before
the other, and they converge. There are important characters in each story
line, and they interact. I need to work on them to ensure they’re as deeply
developed as they should be and that they’re behaving in ways that are believable.
(There’s been a niggling little doubt in the back of my mind since I reached the
halfway point in the book that a couple characters might not be behaving
quite the way they really should. I have to spend time on that.)
I also have to take a look at them and decide who my
protagonist really is. It’s funny—now that the first draft is finished, I think
the protagonist is actually a different character than the one I thought it was
in the beginning. That’s cool, but it also means more revision to emphasize and
expand on that. (Remember, the protagonist is the one who really drives the
story, not necessarily the one you would consider the “hero.”)
As I wrote the first draft, I paid little attention to theme, and it’s an element that I doubt I would have thought
much about had I not read Smith’s book. I don’t think this particular novel needs
to hit people over the head with any overarching theme, but when I stopped to
think about it, there are a couple themes that do come out in it. So why not
pay attention to them as well and make the story richer for it?
When it comes to attacking my scene development, I’ve decided to try a hands-on, very visual method, and I’m really looking forward to this. I’m going
to “blow up” each scene in the book using poster board and sticky notes. (I’m
cobbling together ideas I’ve read from other writers, so credit to those who
have shared on their blogs and such, even if I can’t remember where I got the
ideas now.) Every scene should advance the plot or help develop the characters,
so I figure if I section off my poster board for individual scenes and use the
sticky notes to outline the characters’ actions within the scenes, I’m going to
have a very good tool to evaluate what’s going on in my scenes and what needs
to be changed.
This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what I’m
going to do and how I’m going to do it. But for the first time, I’m looking
forward to revision. I know my book needs work, and I’m willing and eager to do
that work. I think I’m going to enjoy revising. Who would have thought?
