This

Sometimes other people say it better than you can.

This. This is perfect.

It's a comfort to know that successful, wonderful authors can struggle in the same way I am. That I'm not hopeless or unfit to be an author. Even better to know that there is hope for this horrible first draft I'm fighting with.

Go....Stop!

I don't know if you've seen this post about the main reasons agents, and editors, often stop reading. It made me look at my manuscript in a whole new way.

Add to that the posts Kristin Nelson is doing  about why she will pass even if the writing is good and  you've got a great little great little checklist for revisions.

Pacing seems to be a big one.  I highly recommend you read these articles in depth. You'll be glad you did.

Alphabet Soup

As part of his pre-school, mini-Engineer (aka Truck Boy) was filling out Valentine’s day cards for his classmates. He loved doing it and insisted on writing all their names himself. I noticed that while he could make all the letters  and knew what letters where in which name, getting them in the right order was a completely different problem. 

He’d start in the right place but if he ran out of room, or if he just wanted to, he would continue the name under the first couple letters, or above, or in front of. Because there was that nice empty margin to fill up. Upon occasion the letters could be scattered around in no order whatsoever.  Alphabet soup. 

It reminded me of a few of my early novels. They were a collection of scenes thrown together with no overall plot arc, no through line, and no rising tension. Just as my son needs to put the letters in the right order for them to make a name, I needed to learn to organize my scenes. First thing that should be done after finishing the draft and letting it sit for a little is give it a read and just look for the over all plot structure. Is the conflict set up at the beginning of the book resolved at the end? Is there growth and movement throughout the book, or is it just someone reacting to things thrown at him. 

If the scenes don't line up like the letters in a name then you probably have a problem. I just finished a structure draft of my current WIP. I’m super excited to see how this is coming together, and I can’t wait to move on to language, polishing, and really making my book shine.  I’m even looking forward to checking the grammar.  

Have you ever written an alphabet soup book? 

Plant a scene

I finished the first draft of my still untitled WIP yesterday!  Even though I know it's just a step towards the finished product it still made me happy and I've been 'celebrating' today by taking the day off.  I've put in 40K in the last three months, which is a lot for me.  Now that the first draft it done I find my mind already turning to thoughts of editing.



I have hear a picture of a snapdragon growing in between the bricks on my front stairs.

I haven't planted snapdragons in years but somehow I keep finding them in odd spots like this. Back when I first started blogging I used a picture very similar to this to show the determination of the plant and vow that I had that much determination and that I would keep working until I was published. Which is true. But now that I’ve got a little more experience under my belt I see this differently. 

 I love snapdragons.  Thus the reason I planted them in the first place many years ago.  They’re pretty, and I love how they strive to survive.  But, no matter how much I love the plant. It doesn’t belong here.  Not only is the plant not able to grow to its full potential, it destroys the mortar and weakens the stairs.   

There are scenes like that in my first draft.  Scenes I may love but that are just in the wrong place.  Maybe they can’t deepen and reach their full potential where they are.  Maybe they weaken the story and detract from the plot arc.  Either way I need to take them out.  No matter how hard it is.

J is for Jenga

Remember Jenga?  That game where you pull out sticks and see how many you can remove and still have a stable structure.  Anyone feel like you play that during revisions?

Holes don't always leave something weaker.  Look at lace.  Part of what makes it beautiful are the holes, the empty spots.

I've read books where the author has detailed everything. "First they rummaged around in their rucksack and pulled out some matches. They gathered twigs and piled them in the fire ring. They struck a match and tried to shield it from the wind"  and it continues like that.  The readers don't need every single detail.  There needs to be some holes to make the story beautiful instead of tedious. 

What are you showing in your MS and what are you leaving up to the reader? 

Cleaning Day

My sister-in-law is a fast moving, busy woman.  When it comes to her home she tears through it in a whirlwind of work, doing one of her many projects, throwing things here or there and never cleaning until she blows through in a whirlwind of picking up.  I, however, clean while I go.  This causes The Engineer much distress as I have a tendency to clean up the tools he's still using. 

I can't help it, it's habit. 

Now, this is not to say my house is perfectly clean.  I have clutter spots where I dump stuff I don't want to deal with.  Also I have two kids.  This may be one reason I've adopted this style of cleaning.  There's no possibility of a large block of cleaning time so I clean here and there while I go.

I'm like that in my writing too. While I have participated in, and won, NaNo, in general I tend to revise as I go.  Again, this is not to say my first drafts are perfect.  There are things I don't want to deal with and I put it off until later drafts.  I'm a chunky pants writer.  I don't write linearly, and I don't plot, so I find I do a bit of editing as I put all the parts together.

This works for me.  It fits my style and it keeps the thoughts flowing, though I'm sure there are as many ways of doing it as there are writers.  How about you?  Do you tend to tear through a first draft leaving all the clean up until later, or do you try to tidy while you go?

Rewrites Again

I’ve had some questions generated by my last post about what exactly I consider a rewrite.  For me I use rewrite for in two ways.  Now, let me say upfront that this is how I think of it.  I’m guessing others might have different ideas and I’m open to correction or thoughts. 

The first way I use rewrite is a general umbrella to cover rewrites, revisions, editing, and polishing.  Because sometimes it gets tiresome to type out each word, and really aren’t we all trying to cut word counts?  Ok, not really, I’m just lazy. 

The second way I use rewrites is for the heavy duty part of, well, rewrites with the first definition.  It’s like the part of construction that uses the big machines, the bulldozer, the backhoe; the ones that change the landscape.  For me, that sometimes means, taking a scene and writing it from a new POV, or with a different emphasis and better dialogue.  I’m rewriting if I move scenes around, and have to change transitions.

Revisions are a bit smaller.  The basic arc is set, the characters are themselves and not nebulous.  But you may still move things around within a scene or change part of it to bring out a theme or provide better foreshadow.  They’re like using a jackhammer, or a floor sander, changes are being made but only within certain boundaries.  

Editing is like using hammer and screwdrivers.  They’re the tightening, straightening and fixing of each sentence and paragraph. 

Polishing is using the Windex to make it shine.  You change the word “ran” for “darted” or “galloped”. You weigh each word separately and as part of a whole to make sure it carries the weight it needs. 

Personally, these tend to blend together. Rewriting may change to revision without conscious thought.  It’s not like crossing a state line where you can say, Now I’m in Ohio and now I’m in Indiana. It’s more of moving from country to town in Wyoming (If you’ve ever been in Wyoming you know what I’m talking about)  First there’s just one random building, then there’s two.  There’s some animals, maybe a dog or kid, the houses get closer together and more plentiful.  Before you realize, and without leaving the freeway, you’re downtown. 

I don’t think you have to “rewrite” the whole book to have it be a rewrite.  Maybe the beginning is fabulous but your ship changed course and you need to get it back on target, so you just reshape the middle chapters.  Personally I have not yet ever taken a story and rewritten from scratch, either keeping the plot and changing the characters, or vice versa, or some combination of the two.  If you don’t keep any of the scenes is it rewriting or drafting? 

Now once again this is all my opinion and if there are actual definitions of this then I’d LOVE to know. 

How do you define rewriting?  I’d love to hear everyone’s ideas on this so tell everyone to come on over and let’s get a discussion going. 

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This post is inspired by Elise's post yesterday. On top of my bookshelf I have a stack of manuscript drafts. Sometimes it's the full draft, often just a chapter or partial.  What you can't see in this picture is one more draft that's in a black binder on the shelf.  It blended into the shadow. 

I know I'll recycle these at some point. I really do like trees and am not trying to kill them all off in one manuscript. but for some reason I just can't let them go yet.  To take them and drop them off at the recycling center would seem like abandonment.  Worse yet, it would seem like I had given up on the manuscript. Yea, I'm crazy, I know.  I have all those drafts on the computer.  Plus the finished project.  But I'm not ready to toss them.  There they'll stay until my beautiful book is published or shelved.  Then I'll be able to move on. 

What do you do with your printed drafts?

Nuts and Bolts

I'm having someone help me with a final check through my MS before sending it to betas.  I'm shocked at how many things I've missed.  I know grammar isn't my strong point so I expected all the missed commas, but oh how many times I've misspelled a word.  Waive for wave.  Solder for soldier.  Thing for think. Sometimes I have words repeat repeat themselves. When it's a real word spell check doesn't get it and I, having read it all so many times before, see what I think is there rather than what is. Next time I'll print it out and read it out loud.    Or I can just give it to my mom and have her fix it again.  Thanks Mom!

What do you do to help find all those nitty gritty problems? And can we ever find them all?

Under Construction

This morning I watched Truck Boy build a train track complete with perilous bridge.  Every time he went over the bridge it collapsed.  Every time he would cry then rebuild it.  The exact same way as before.  He’s only two and a half so I hardly expect him to think “hey this didn’t work before maybe I should try something different”.  But it was interesting to watch how surprised he was each time.

Sometimes I’ve had a scene that didn’t work.  I’ve rewritten it again and again without changing much.  A few words here or there, more description, less description, or maybe they’re angry instead of surprised.  I’m sure more experienced authors would have looked at me in confusion or amusement thinking “how many times will it take before she realizes she needs to completely rebuild the scene”. 

Like my son’s bridge sometimes scenes need to be torn down and completely changed.  Maybe it should be told from a different pov, or it needs different characters, or the information we thought so important to impart maybe isn’t.  Try changing the setting, the time of day.  Make it in a barn at midnight instead of a funeral home at tea time.  How does that change your characters reactions and revelations?  And of course we always need to make sure the scene is needed, does it advance the plot?  Or should we cut it entirely?  I’m sure my son’s train track would have been a lot more stable if he had just removed the bridge.

Almost There

I'm only thirty pages away from concluding this run through of my ms and I am determined to finish today.  Then next week I can start the changes I blocked out.  There aren’t too many, just shifting the sequencing a bit and a few more scenes in the beginning. 

I have been shocked and pleased by this pass through.  It's reading like a novel.  And parts of it are good.  And I like it!  Maybe I will meet my goal to have it to beta readers at the end of the year. 

Off to work.

Pet Phrases

I've read blog posts about pet phrases or words.  Some authors use "just" a lot.  Others "that".  I often wondered what my pet phrase was but couldn't think of anything.  During my current round of revisions I have found my pet phrase.  I didn't realize how often I used the phrase "he/she knew".  Apparently he and she already knew about a lot of things. So many that I wonder why I'm even writing this book.  It's been quite frustrating, though luckily it's an easy fix.  In most cases I can just delete that phrase and the sentence is fine.  Still it's been an eye opener to me. 

Do you have pet phrases?  How do you keep from using them?  Or do you just ignore them and clean it up in revisions?

Do Over

I had a goal to finish this draft by Friday.  Yeah, I’m not going to make it.  It’s not because I’m not working hard, I am.  Mostly.  The editing is taking me longer than I had anticipated.  Because I’m a pantster my early writing is me discovering and telling myself the story.  Yea, I’ve found a lot of telling.  In many scenes, while the kernel of the scene is sound, there is so much that needs help it’s easier just to rewrite from the ground up.  That’s why it’s taking so long.  I’m hoping that having been through all of this my next book will be better from the get go.  Anyway, back to work.

When you revise do you tweak and adjust the scenes, or do you start from scratch?