Tag: novel revising

The Writing Moment

Eighteen pages. 5070 words. This is the gist of the chapter in my book which gave me so much trouble.

The chapter is called “Reconciliation”. Consisting of eight sub sections, this part of the story swung back and forth between two points of view.

Man, was editing and revising it a challenge.

I began with reading it after finishing the previous chapters. Right away, my brain was screeching to a halt. A grimace of displeasure spread. This wasn’t working.

Okay, recognizing there’s problem is a good first step. Identifying the problem is the second step. Fixing it is the third step. Then reviewing it to confirm it works is the fourth step.

“Reconciliation” begins on page 532 of 646 manuscript pages. So a lot of the story is well underway by then. Until encountering “Reconciliation”, the editing and revising was going well. I think I owe that to my process. I write and rewrite and polish as I progress. If I’m uncertain about what happens next, I’ll drop back and read and edit until I’m ready to write the next stage. Also, this is the novel’s third official draft. So there’s already been a lot of effort in it.

“Reconciliation” was a whole different animal. The story and the flow balked and balked again. It was like a squeak that must be fixed but first I needed to locate the squeak. I went through that chapter seven times before I was satisfied that I could go on.

The chapter after that, “Camden”, 23 pages, 6400 words, was done in a day.

Yet, with all that whining, editing and revising “Reconciliation” was very satisfying. There was a problem to be fixed. Fingers crossed, that’s what I did.

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The Writing Moment

Dealing with a bad muse today. Experienced with my buttons, she’s pushing them to get her way.

See, I should be editing and revising. It’s round number five on this novel in progress. It’s coming along well but it has a big appetite for my time. I hope, with another round or two, that I’ll have a finished tale that satisifes me. But that comes with a big sigh cuz I’m a little weighed down with the novel. Sixty pages of editing remain of a section which was expanded and shifted in the last two go-arounds. Complicated, they were sloppy and overwritten so I’m addressing what I see. It’s satisfying but tedious.

Bad Muse knows this. She knows that I’m addicted to the creativity experienced while writing a new novel. So Bad Muse is pushing buttons to continue with a new novel in progress. “It’s going well,” she croons, “and it’s fun. Time away from that other one will give you distance and you’ll find the editing is more easily done.”

I don’t know if her logic is right but I don’t like her tone when she says ‘that other one’. So disdainful. Not calling it a novel. Not even referencing it as a book or manuscript. Like she’s talking about another woman, a past girlfriend or wife or such. Oddly, that tone cements a decision that I’m going to edit ‘that other one’.

Take that, Bad Muse.

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The Writing Moment

I picked up my laptop bag and headed to the door. “Off to write,” I told my wife. “I’m pretty excited. Just fifteen pages left of this draft to revise.”

“How long will fifteen pages take?”

Pausing, I broke out in a broad grin. “Well, that depends on how it’s written.” As I laughed, she joined me. I went on, “I mean, it really depends on how it reads and if it still fits with the story after the revisions I’ve made.”

“I see,” she answered.

Shrugging, I turned back to the door. “And then I begin again.”

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The Writing Moment

24 pages.

I’ve had about twenty-four pages left to edit and revise in the novel in progress for about a month. Reason exists for that number: I keep re-writing and revising the first ten pages of one chapter. I’ve done so six times. After the sixth time — I’m a slow thinker — I realized that I didn’t know enough about the two characters and their relationship.

He was the main character and I’d been writing about him for months. His actions, thinking, and talking filled most of the 420 pages already revised. The other character had never shown up but was obliquely referenced. He was her son, but she wasn’t really his mother. He didn’t know that when he was young, only learning much later in life. He knew she resented him but didn’t know why. He thought he’d murdered her, but it turned out that she hadn’t been killed. Yes, it’s complicated.

After fleshing these things out more, I suddenly realized, oh, they hate each other.

It surprised me. I thought they were hostile and contemptuous toward one another but hadn’t respected the true depths of despise between them. She was secretive and using him, and he didn’t know why, but he didn’t like her and didn’t trust her. After leaving home, he’d researched his ‘mother’ and discovered little of the truth about her, except he hadn’t murdered her, that she’d framed him and she wasn’t dead at all, but had abandoned him and his sister, hiding her existence from them. All this traumatized his sister when she was a child, who responded by ostracizing her brother and becoming a cat. (I told you, it’s complicated.)

Now that I feel better about my understanding of the two, I tore out the chapter to rewrite it again. Then I’ll revise, and when I feel like I can go on, I will. Then I’ll read the novel again for more revision and see how the newest effort holds up.

That’s how it goes.

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The Writing Moment

Deeply into revision after letting the novel in progress simmer for a few days. Surprising early cuts come, which weirdly feel ‘natural’. Like the book is already out there, and I’m shaping the manuscript to fit it.

The process is much more involved and slower than the creative writing stage. With the entire story from beginning to end filled in before me, I know how I want to sharpen its focus. Ten pages have been sliced away from the beginning. What remained of that bird required extensive rewriting. It’s like that first draft was an exploration of the history of an event and the characters populating it. Now that I’m familiar with it, I can properly tell the story. From less comes more.

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