Blog-to-Blog: What we all can learn from Amy March ...

Take a look at this wonderfully provocative post from Megan Rebekah Blogs. So what's your initial reaction? When I read that "Tweet" about metaphorically burning one's manuscript, I instinctively cringed, as I think any writer who has slaved for months (or years) over a WIP would. And then I had this delayed reaction: "More brilliant words have never been written!" I realized that I myself had basically "burned" the first draft of my current WIP. Here's the back story ...

After I finished the first (personally revised but without beta input) draft of my 160,000 word (roughly 400-page) novel, I sent it around to my BEs for feedback. I got some great critiques - overall, everyone thought it was an enjoyable read. However, a number of people pointed out lags and sags in certain subplots, a couple of dead-weight characters that got too much page time, and some personality inconsistencies. Oh, and let's not forget that little exposition problem I keep mentioning ... ;-)-

After sifting though all this feedback, I felt confused. It was as if I was standing at a multi-pronged fork in the road. One road (a dead-end, really) led to abandoning the novel completely and moving on to something else. This was the road I took with my first novel. However, I had no desire to go there again with this one. So that left two other paths not-yet-travelled ... one leading to the revision of what I'd already written, and the other to a rewrite from scratch.

Of course, the latter sounded like such a monumental undertaking that I didn't even consider it, at first. The sensible choice would be to simply revise my current manuscript, right? And then I thought, what if I spend the next 3-6 months patching up holes and cobbling together new passages with old ones, only to end up with a disjointed Frankenstein monster of a novel?

So what does all this have to do with Amy March, some of you may be asking. (Others of you may be saying, "Who is Amy March?") As a child, Amy March was, in my opinion, the most dastardly villain in all of young adult fiction. Yes, I am referring to Jo's youngest sister in Little Women. She got on my nerves from the get-go with her princessy ways, but the moment she threw Jo's novel into the fire, she became my arch-nemesis. Even as a child of 9, or however old I was when I read Louisa May Alcott's classic, I identified with Jo's trials and tribulations as an aspiring writer. And even when Jo forgave her bratty little sister, I didn't. I mean, how dare Amy burn the manuscript that Jo had toiled over for months?

If I recall correctly, Jo came to realize that rewriting her book was not the end of the world. In fact, it might even be a blessing in disguise. So, nobly, she set to recreating the entire story (and staying on her sister's good side!) Of course, Jo's literary struggles didn't end there. When she finally got a professional editor (her eventual true love ...) to read her book, he dismissed it outright and told her to go back to the drawing board!

So how does this tale fit into our lives as writers? Perhaps it reminds us that we can always improve, and that no time spent writing is ever wasted. Does this mean we should never be satisfied with the work we produce? Of course not! (Goodness knows many of us - myself included - revise our work into the ground to the point that someone just needs to pry the computer out of our hands and put an end to the cycle!)

But I think we all know, deep down inside, when a piece truly does still need work. Start by listening to your beta readers - what are their first impressions? I'll save my detailed analyses of "constructive verses detrimental feedback" for another post, but for now, let's just assume that you have received enough helpful feedback to know that your WIP misses the mark in some way(s). Now it's time to ask yourself, are these critiques minor enough that reworking a few lines here and there (rewriting a couple of passages, or perhaps one chapter, at most) will suffice? Or is what lays ahead of you a major overhauling of plotlines, characters, and writing style?

If you answered yes to that last question (as I recently did), I strongly urge you to go down Burn-That-Book Road. Just remember, we're talking about a metaphorical burning here. Tuck that first draft into your "writing graveyard" folder and open up a brand new Word doc. Do just what that Tweet said and launch into your rewrite from memory. I think you'll be pleasantly shocked, as I was, by how freely and quickly the ideas flow, and by how much more you like the words falling from your fingertips the second time around.

Starting My Rewrite with a BANG

Ok, let me fess up - the title of this post is more aspiration than reality.  It all started after my last post, when I sat down in front of a freshly created Word doc and set to the opening scene of my novel.  I chose a very dramatic moment in history, and was confident that my now-honed (or so I believed) writing skills were going to create an amazing first scene.

I wrote the opening - less than 2 pages, double spaced - and read it to my husband.  His face grew confused and he had to stop me before I had finished.  "Wait, where is this taking place again?  And who are these characters you're introducing?"  

I had done it YET AGAIN ... I had launched into exposition about characters the reader had not even met yet.  A very dark, sinking feeling crept over me, and even my husband's statement that I shouldn't worry, I just hadn't gotten into the flow of rewriting yet, did not comfort me.  

Shortly thereafter, I had to go to work.  I got in my car and turned on the radio.  Crowded House told me to stop dreaming, it was over.  I spent the rest of the day yearning to crawl into bed and put the covers over my head, indefinitely ...

But like many a writer-type prone to melodramatic bouts of victimhood, I snapped out of it the next day and set to reworking my intro.  The task is proving a lot harder than expected, but maybe that's a good thing.  I am fully aware - maybe too aware - of how important the first few pages, heck, the first few lines, of a novel are.  And so I am really running myself over the ringer to get my book off to a powerful, well-crafted start.  I sure hope I pick up momentum though, because at this rate, I might not finish this rewrite for another 5 years!

Which leads me to a brief announcement re how I plan to conduct this blog over the next few months.  My legal workload is ramping up, and this rewriting process is proving more arduous than I had expected (and I had already expected it was gonna be rough!)  So I'm going to go back to my original plan of "checking in" here once a week.  And of course, I will also be reading posts from all your blogs to learn the latest tricks of the trade, and ways to cope with the stresses of being an aspiring published writer!

FIGURING IT OUT AS I GO:  Ok, so maybe revising your novel or short story or memoir isn't going to be as easy as you'd hoped, despite all the how-to's and insightful writers' blogs you've read.  That's life!  Good things take hard work, right?  If you find yourself in a rut, just re-read the helpful tips that you know you should be following, and eventually these techniques will become 2nd nature.  Here are 2 excellent blog posts that I have benefited from recently: Me, My Muse and I and Caroline by line

Jumping off the Diving Board

What's the meaning behind my title, you ask?  Well, I've decided that today is the day to put pen to paper, or rather, to open up a new MS Word doc and launch into my opening scene.  It's been exactly one month since I started blogging (and as a side note, this whole process, including reading all of YOUR blogs, has benefited me 100x more than I could have ever imagined.)  So it seems fitting to bite the bullet, and start my rewrite today.

Do you sense a little trepidation in my "voice"?  If so, you're right.  It's all fine and good to muse and muddle over how you're going to rewrite your 400-page-not-quite-a-masterpiece; it's a whole other thing to actually do it.  The ID ("inner demon") is whispering, "Look out world, here comes another 400 pages of endless exposition and unrealistic dialogue!"  Thankfully, my GAs ("guardian angels") are murmuring, "Just think how much your writing has improved since After the Row Houses [1st unpublished novel] ... it can only continue to get better!"  So I'm setting to work with the GAs on my shoulder, and the ID kicked out into the cold.  

Let me conclude with an update on my recent preparatory accomplishments.  I finished that fabulous Frederick Lewis Allen book (I was practically sweating as he recounted the final days before Black Tuesday), and am about 3/4ths of the way through my character attribute exercise.  The latter is taking a heck of a lot longer than I'd like, but perhaps that's a good sign ... I've found myself staring at a few of the prompts (especially the ones dealing with character motivation and attitudes) for minutes thinking, "How would So-&-So behave?"  

In addition to the suggested attribute prompts in Manuscript Makeover, I added a few of my own, which are as follows:

• Most vivid childhood memory
  
• Perfect day
  
• Favorite food
  
• Most guarded secret
  
• Closest confidante
  
• Most shameful/embarrassing moment
  
• Most prized possession
• Political affiliation/leaning –
• Says prayers (e.g., “when …”/”never”) –

It's amazing how much you can learn about your protagonists by fleshing out their family members.  On that note, here's another edition of ...

FIGURING IT OUT AS I GO:  I'm going to do something a little different.  Instead of coming up with my own worldly wisdom on pre-(re)write character development, let me send you to an excellent post on the subject ... An Ulterior Motive: Characters Are People Too

Revised Revision Plan

So here's the plan (I wanted to update my original revision plan now that I have a better sense of the task at hand):

• Finish the chapter on characterization in my how-to book by the end of this week.
• RESEARCH, RESEARCH, RESEARCH.  My cursory internet trolling while writing the novel didn't cut it, so I have ordered a number of books that I think will greatly aid me in fleshing out the essence of the time period.  Several of my Brilliant Editors felt that my novel lost some of its 1920s feel in parts, and could have been taking place in modern day.  That's not good!  My challenge is to maintain a steady and unmistakable Jazz Age backdrop, without seeming gimicky.  I also plan to visit the local historical society library in the next week or so to get a better flavor of this particular region during that period.  My research will likely be ongoing, and I will continue to trudge forward with the next steps while I'm reading.
• Storyboard each viewpoint character's narrative.  This is going to be a time-consuming and incredibly valuable endeavor.  I need to chart the storylines for all 6 characters, paying special attention to their motivations, personality traits, and dynamic interactions with one another.  This will be the first time I will be reading my book with a "slash-and-burn" mentality.  In other words, I'm not going to be approaching my manuscript with a pencil for tweaking lines here and there.  It's bold red pen time!
• Storyboard a new narrative plan.  I'm already committed to re-writing my whole novel.  I believe that not only will the characters benefit from this, but my style and tone in general will benefit.  That's not to say that I won't lift passages from my first draft, but at this stage, I'm beginning to see my first version as a 400 page character biography.  It provides an excellent road map for the task I'm about to undertake, but it in itself is not a publishable product.

FIGURING IT OUT AS I GO:  Get a game plan, and don't be afraid to revisit and rework it.  Staying organized is what enabled you to finish your novel, and it's going to be the only way you're ever going to navigate through the murky world that is novel revision!

The Truth Has Set Me Free! (Part II)

This post is a continuation on my conversation with one of my BEs over the weekend.  I won't go through and detail all of his comments; instead, I want to list a few key points I took away from the discussion:

• Give character relationships depth and conflict.  Specifically, he did not understand the initial attraction between Cora and her husband Arthur ("Being a 'nice guy' just doesn't cut it.")  He also wanted me to bring the growing tension between Lila and her best friend, Rosemarie, to a head, instead of allowing it to subside and letting life return to normal between them, which is the way the subplot is currently written.  There were several other relationships (Marcus-Edward, the playboy; Arthur-Ophelia) which my BE also thought needed heightened conflict and climax, and he's right.
• Work on dialogue and narrative style.  This is technically two comments, but they both deal with my overall writing proficiency.  My BE said I need to shorten some of the dialogue to make it more punchy and engaging, and also to pay attention to my point of view.  He says I pull the reader away from the viewpoint characters' impressions by asking a lot of rhetorical questions.  When he called my attention to this, I thought, by golly, he's right.  What I had considered to be a clever little stylistic device was apparently not only ineffective, but distracting.
• Finally, my BE confirmed that nagging hunch that has been lurking in the back of my mind for some time.  My story would benefit from less viewpoints, and more honed central storyline(s).  And what's more, he wanted to see more of two of my ancillary characters - Rosemarie and Marcus - and thought that their stories could actually carry the novel, with Lila being more clearly defined as the antogonist.  I still have not completely worked out how to go about this shift in narrative vantage points, but one thing I do know is that the change feels right.

One thing has become crystal clear to me by now - this "revision" process is turning into a full blown "re-write."  Anything less would be creating a Frankenstein of a novel; cobbling together new passages and chapters and inserting them into what I already have would doubtlessly create a schism in flow and style (I feel I've grown so much as a writer in these past few months from taking in people's comments, and I'd like to think this will be reflected in my future writing.)  

So now I know what I have to do ... write a whole new book!!!