Category Archives: Revisions

First Whole Novel Revision

Posted on by under Characters, Cover Reveal, Critique Groups, fantasy writer, Revisions, Whole novel revisions, writing, Writing a Series, YA fantasy

Did it. I finished writing my next book in the War Unicorn series, standing now at 64K. The writing was a long and hard part. My relief is sweet, but short. Now onto the next hard(er) part (whole novel revision) before more revisions and sending off to my first editor for even more revisions.

Most of my chapters have already sailed through my critique group. They are a remarkable group. I find it amusing how one can spot things the others don’t, and that’s true for each person. I love my critiquers!

For this first whole novel revision, I’m basically using Darcy Pattison’s book Novel Metamorphosis. It’s meant as a workbook. The spine glue on my copy is coming apart even though the only writing in it is Darcy’s signing on the title page. The book is well-worn because I’ve used it for nearly every one of my manuscripts. This particular book is a bit more complicated than my others, so I needed wider eyes to evaluate it.

I just finished my Connotation Worksheet, found on page 69 of her book, but expanded it. In order see my characters more clearly, I adapted her basic form to my own categories. I have many characters. By doing this, I am able to see where to strengthen the individual’s relationship to his various aspects. These are some of my categories across the top of my page:

CHARACTER    FAV FOOD   SECRET   AFRAID OF   ANTAGONIST   MAIN GOAL/DESIRE

 Okay. Enough sharing with you all. Off to do more analyzing of my novel so I can revise better and delight you each with this book coming out in September. And here’s the cover reveal:

Carlson-WarUnicorn2Escape 4mb

What I’ve Learned About Whole Book Writing – One, Two! One, Two!

Posted on by under Revisions, Rewriting, writing, YA fantasy

Nearly everyone in the profession says to first get your story written – the rough draft bit. Only from that point can you see: 1) character development; 2) plot twists; and most importantly, 3) the big picture. Here, you might be like me, and after seeing all the holes and inconsistencies, you drop your head to the desk and never want to write another word, because calling what you spent months writing a rough draft is simply being polite. But you pick yourself up to see what can be done.

After the rough draft is completed, you start hacking away at it, cutting scenes and even chapters which don’t push the story or character development forward. I’ve even thrown away major characters because they were redundant or didn’t serve much purpose.

Then comes your rewrite.

Then comes revisions, lots of them.

Then comes letting your critique group read some. Although sometimes my dear critique group reads subs which I later eliminate, but that is because they only see slices at a time (1-3 chapters) v.s. the big picture (whole novel). They do, however, keep me writing and writing and writing, as well as continue being terrific friends.

Then come the editor’s comments to address.

Then comes the word-by-word read to make sure every single word is right, and not just spelled correctly. (And sometimes, you all still miss some.)

My next book, Escape: The War Unicorn Chronicles, Book 2, is scheduled for a September 2018 publication date. A month ago, I switched plans and decided to combine two books. Whatever was I thinking? Plus, I feel writing in two points of view is distracting, both for the writer and the reader, yet here I am, doing just that.

It was only after finishing the rough/rewritten/revised draft of one and starting on the next, that I realized the two needed to be mashed together. I’ve already cut out about 20,000 words from the second story, but need to now finish that rough draft  to another 20- 30,000 words, making sure they not only make sense as one story, but that they mash seamlessly together. I’m painfully deleting from that first story. Painfully, because I adore those scenes, those dialogues, those descriptions and interactions, but…“One, two! One, two! And through and through the vorpal blade went snicker-snack!”

So…1) finish your rough draft; 2) delete and add; 3) rewrite; 4) revise; 5) send through critique group; 6) revise; 7) send to editor; 8) revise; 9) do word-by-word check; 10) release your baby to the publisher.

 

Whole Book Revisions

Posted on by under Characters, NaNoWriMo, Plot, POV, Revisions, Setting

I have a book which is half done-ish at 50K. That is, I’ve completed the rough draft of one of the character’s POV, with lots of hours of revisions and rewrites already done to it, which also means the word count fluctuates as I add or delete. I was going to start in on the other character’s POV. I mean, I already have done that with 18K down, but decided to hold off until NaNoWriMo in November to completely rewrite it and add a bunch of twists and complications. It is so hard to wait when all I want to do is write. In the meantime, until November 1st, I am doing a whole book revision on the first guy’s story.

Some of my writer friends love revisions as the best part of the writing process. Perhaps that’s because the story line is done, the characters already developed, etc. Revision means delving into both the big picture and the micro (even down to a single word use) picture. To me, that’s like wading knee-deep in mud. That said, I really, really like my completed revised drafts. I just whine pitifully all the way there. And these are just my own personal revisions, not an agent’s or editor’s input.

I’ve got Darcy Pattison’s shrunken manuscript workbook next to my tiny-print manuscript and go back and forth and back and forth between them. I’ve done the “simple” tasks of marking strong chapters, boxing off scenes, etc., and can’t help but also do some micro editing. Sorry, Darcy. I know. I know. Big picture first. And so much think-time! They never teach you that in writing classes/books. There’s so-so much think-time to writing a book.

After I do this particular whole book revision, I’ll then print it off again and mark any major, medium, or detailed changes still needing attention. And then print it off again for another look-though.

You would think I would be content doing whole book revisions. I mean, it is writing, after all, isn’t it? Well, in fact, no, it isn’t. Revisions are a part of the writing process, the part to make your story stronger, to plug up those plot holes, to make your characters more loveable…or more hateable. Whether I particularly like this bit of writing or not, it sure will fill my time for the next five weeks. And then–hurray!–I can start in on a new story which has been teasing me ceaselessly to pay attention to it, which is actually the other side-of-the-coin story.

(All right, Sandy, quit writing all these fresh words and thoughts and get back to work already! Revisions-ho!)

Revisions – The Big Picture

Posted on by under POV, Revisions, Rewriting, writing

They say (“they” being conference speakers and authors of books on craft) that first you must get your story written before you go back to rewrite, revise, send through your critique group, revise more, and make the big picture make sense.

I thought after nearly a year of writing that I was done with my WIP story, and could look back on the big picture. Actually, I am far from it. What I thought I was finished with was the one character’s POV of the story. And then this past week I saw the big picture and realized that I had it snowing (in my story) from mid-September to the end of December. All I can give for an excuse is that while I wrote the bulk of the story last year that it must have been a long, cold winter. I mean, whatever happened to autumn?

I love the fall. It’s my favorite time of the year. And here I went and wrote a story going from summer directly into winter, totally skipping an entire season. And, yes, it was a long, cold winter last year. Still…no excuses.

The past couple of days I’ve been getting rid of winter (until the more appropriate later in the story). But another, perhaps more serious, trouble I have is that when I look back on whatever I’ve written, I have the irresistible urge to do revisions, not just seasonally related. It’s like I can make every single sentence in my 60K story better.

When I taught second graders one year and used the cute term “sloppy copy” for the rough first drafts of their stories, some of my best writers scribbled, scratched out, and wrote in both big and little letters even in the same word. I was confused until I realized they had taken me quite literally and had tried to make it sloppy.

I am not joking that my file with this WIP on it reminds me of my second graders’ sloppy copies. A couple weeks ago, I felt so good to be “done” with at least one character’s POV. I now know I am a long, long way from done. Oh, what a yucky sloppy copy. But at least I know the story, where it’s going, how it ends. Now to take care of ONE of the big picture revisions.

Keep on writing (and revising and learning).

The Writer’s Journey – Baby Steps

Posted on by under Revisions, The Writer, writing

The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler is a terrific craft book for writers on characters and plot. My own Writer’s Journey is made up of more mundane baby steps.

I am presently in revision mode. It’s not that I’ve finished this third book in the series yet, which is what (finishing your rough draft) is highly recommended, but it’s been a while since I’ve worked on it.

So I reread what I wrote. Then I naturally revise or rewrite what I wrote. This process takes me about an hour per chapter, and were I to go back over it for another look, I’d still find ways to improve the writing. I’m certain I could revise much faster if I were going through it one point at a time, e.g., finding any missed passive voices, or reading through for plot inconsistencies only. But I need to finish the entire story first.

So today’s baby step in writing is revising chapter by chapter until the words start to blur.

I force a few real life steps at the conclusion of each chapter – stretch those ole legs every hour, rip out a few weeds while I walk around the yard, grab a fresh cup of tea, then dive back in.

I want to scream, “UGH! This is so hard!” But my tea’s ready, so I must return.

Baby steps. One step at a time. One chapter or scene at a time.

Storytelling and Writing/ Repetition and Revision

Posted on by under Revisions, Storyteller, Writing Challenge

Last week I had the privilege to spend a few days with my grandkids, one-month-old twins and a three-year-old. I’d taken my laptop along to write in my spare time–there’s always so much to be working on–but oh, hahahaha, I found that the only spare time was when I slept. (I really don’t know how young mothers find time to write. Really.)

Last January, I’d tell my smart-as-a-whip three-year-old Nursery Rhymes. If she liked it she’d say, “Again.” By the fourth time through, the kid was reciting the rhyme with me. This last visit, because there was often a babe in my arms, I told her folk tales instead.

Once when I asked if she wanted to hear about the Three Little Pigs, she said, “NO!” So I turned to her baby brother in my arms and asked him if he wanted to hear the story. He stared at me, flailing his arms and kicking, anxious for me to get on with it. I told the boy the story of the pigs with his older sister kneeling beside me on the couch, facing me, but not saying a word. It became one of her two favorite “tell it again” stories this visit. Interestingly enough (but not really), I found that each time I told it, I tweeked it a bit, I stumbled over my wording less, until it was storytelling perfection, until at last my telling had come to a point where there wasn’t a word I wanted to change. The three-year-old and I would do a Reader’s Theatre (without us reading, of course), and switch roles of who said the lines of the Big Bad Wolf and who spoke the lines of the Three Little Pigs. I was always the narrator.

Naturally, most of what I do, even if not writing, I can relate back to writing. The retelling over and over of the Three Little Pigs until there wasn’t any word to change reminded me of revisions of my own tales. Every time I read something I’ve written, there’s always some phrase I can rewrite better, always unnecessary words I can cut out, always points where I can add more feeeeeelings.

My writing challenge to you: Keep rewriting until there isn’t a single word you would want to change.

Art and Art Lessons Learned — Watercoloring and Writing

Posted on by under Characterization, Networking, Raw Writing, Revisions

Last night I attended a watercoloring demo with Ken Dey at the Battle Creek Art Center. I’ve taken watercolor classes before, but this style of demo was new to my experience. (And thank you, all my illustrator friends, for your cheers and encouragement at my untalented-but-willing painting-for-fun efforts.)

I do like to dabble with both sketches and paints, but I’ve never felt I was very good. That said, I know from my writing experience the more practice and more I study about the craft, the better I become. But any craft takes time to learn in order to get it…acceptable for others’ eyes. Time is a huge factor in pursuits. At least for me.

With most of my adult life focused on writing (v.s. illustrating), it wasn’t much of a surprise to find my mind last night translating what Ken was teaching into writing. So here are the things I parallel-learned from last night’s demo:

1)  Study and practice your craft under someone who is more experienced than you, someone who also answers even the most basic questions. (For writers, these can be conferences, workshops, webinars, writing craft book clubs, etc.)

2) Good equipment and materials make the act of doing your craft more seamless. (For illustrators, a workspace, paper, paint, and brushes; for writers, a workspace, working computer (or paper and pen), related computer programs.)

3) Have a plan. (Illustrators–sketches; Writers–theme, plot outline, and character sheets)

4) Start with general placement. (Watercolorers–wet on wet, section by section; Writers–rough draft, or what I call Raw Writing, loosely following the Three Act plan until your story is “done.”)

5) Take time to let it set. (Painters–wait till the next day, or use a hair dryer; Writers–time is your hairdryer. There’s no rushing the set time for us. Put your story aside a few days or months and come back to it with fresh eyes.)

6) Go back to fill in details. (For artists this would mean tree branches, grass blades, shadows, removing gumm, etc. For writers this is what we call “revisions,” like making clearer motivations for each action, working on language to make your words count, making sure your readers can use their five senses which you’ve planted in your scenes, etc.)

7) Say thank you to your friend who invited you to the demo (or whatever), and make sure to invite others to things you care about as well. (It’s a lot about connections and networking, people.)

Throwing Away Your Loved Ones

Posted on by under Reflections, Revisions, Rewriting

Last fall I got poison ivy…again. I was put on steroids…again. Today I looked over my 2014 writing goals and started thinking about my 2015 ones. (Can these two thoughts possibly have anything in common, or have anything at all to do with throwing away your loved ones? Yes, indeed.)

Steroids gives me a perk. This past fall I started digging through some boxes buried in an unused room. One box had notes and papers from writers conferences I’d attended, some nearly twenty years old. I loved attending each and every one. The faces of dear old writer friends popped into my head. The laughter from those times rang faintly in my ear. There was the excellent food and simply a break from the day-to-day life reality. I loved those times and those people–many of whom I am still in contact with. I was glad for the remembering, but I didn’t need a box of outdated files. That large box of past conferences narrowed down to one small file on writing craft gleaned from all those conferences. The rest of those loved ones, which I’d clung to for decades, I threw away.

I do the same with my writing, but never while on steroids! I appreciate the umph the medicine gives me to do things I know I should but don’t necessarily want to do. But when I revise or even rewrite, deciding if an entire chapter or even a character must be thrown away is not a decision I trust while on meds.

Even though I accomplished most of my 2014 writing goals, they were rather chatty. Thing is, even when writing a simple thing like a list of goals, I find myself stockpiling and hording words. Who am I to think that my words are that important that anyone wants to read so many of them, even me? So for 2015, I decided to throw away extra words. Even though it’s not 2015 yet, I’ll stop here.

 

How an Author Spends Editorial Time

Posted on by under Editing, Revisions

A friend sent me a goofy picture with a confused look and asked if this is how authors feel about editorial time. I looked at it and thought: 1) I don’t feel confused, but rather, challenged. I pace in order to figure out difficult plot or character situations; and 2) Half of my editorial time is spent cleaning the house, doing yard work and laundry, reading and responding to emails and FaceBook posts. The other half of my editorial time is spent in no-blinking computer screen reading and re-reading and rewriting and revising until my legs go numb and my back feels like it’s had a rod stuck in it for days. Oh, and there’s the print-out version time when I think I’m ready for a final look-through, and end up putting editorial marks and revised words on each page until they’re nearly unreadable.

Maybe it’s not such a good idea for an author to work at home. Not this one, anyway. But since I find other locations very distracting, it’s the best I’ve got.

Lesson Plan for Organizing Your Plot Arch with a Plot Board

Posted on by under Plot, Revisions

While working on a whole-novel revision this past week, I found I had a lot more organizing to do than when I started. I’d thought I was much farther along in the process. Even glancing over the whole, I realized my panster-vomited scenes and chapters, although with an okay beginning and an excellent ending and lots of good stuff in the middle, didn’t really have a flow or sensible plot arch. The story seemed nearly episodic, although I knew each scene was written for a reason. I’d previous cut out other chapters and scenes which were irrelevant to the overall plot, and knew there were places I needed to deeply revise, like changing the okay beginning to a can’t-wait-to-find-out-what-happens-next beginning. But for this part of revising, I needed to feel the overall flow worked.

In the back of my brain, I remembered something Friend Rose did with rearranging scenes. (Thanks, Rose.) If I remember right, she had post-it notes by chapters and scenes over her wall, and rearranged them as she thought of their logical placement. This she did with five children and all their friends running through the house. (Bless you, Rose.) So I adapted her idea into a lesson plan for organizing my middle grade plot arch on one sheet of paper. The former teacher in me continues to reign.

Materials Needed:

A first draft of a “completed” novel (digital or paper); List of main and minor plot threads; Table of Contents for your story; blank sheet of paper; pen; a second pen in case the first one runs out of ink; and thirty to fifty 1/2″ by 2″ post-it notes of yellow, green and blue. (The number of post-it notes needed will vary with each story.)

procedure:

1) Set aside your draft and list of plot threads to only use as references.

2) Lay your blank sheet of paper landscape way (or as they’d say in elementary schools, the hot dog way).

3) Write your title on the very top of your paper.

4) About 4/5 of the way down draw a line across the page. Beneath this line and writing from the left to the right, put your chronological times (e.g., if your story covers five months, write the five months across the page; if your story covers a few weeks, write the number of weeks). This is your Plot-working Board.

5) Turn small post-it’s sideways (hot-dog way) with sticky bottom on the left side down).

6) On the green post-its, write the settings or weather patterns found throughout in the story. Scatter beneath the chronological line in appropriate order in your story.

7) On the blue post-its, write each chapter title. Place titles in appropriate locations above each chronological indication.

8) On the yellow post-its, describe each scene in three or so words (e.g., Dylan tricks Kilee abt ride;  Shader confronts Mi Lin; Mom dies, etc.), and place beneath each chapter.

9) Cross your arms, sit back, stare at your pieced-together story. Are the plot threads sprinkled throughout? Should some scenes be switched? Do you see blanks in your plot? Are there Goals, Conflicts, and Disaster in each scene; and Reaction, dilemma, and Decision in each sequel?

10) During the next week, play with and rearrange your Plot Board. You may find you add new scenes to write, or crumble and throw away others. Keep rearranging until your plot makes the most sense possible.

11) Go back to your whole novel and update your Table of Contents, and reorder your scenes in your manuscript, and write any new ones.

12) Print out and do a quick read of the entire story, playing attention to plot arch and flow. If you’re satisfied, get others’ opinions (critique groups), revise again. Repeat  as often as necessary.