I am not doing NaNoWriMo, and it feels like I’m opting out of a big party in order to study or something. (more…)
Tag: editing
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Outlining for Dummies, or Why an Outline Is Not for Me
Throughout my life I have been presented with the daunting task of creating an outline. High school English teachers treated them like they were the be all and end all of papers. No good paper could be written without a clear outline in place.
That was problematic for me. My brain doesn’t function from an outline. How do I know what’s going into that paragraph until I’ve already written it? As I write, I discover that the point I wanted to make actually belongs four paragraphs down. Which, I’m sure my teachers would insist would present itself as I outlined.
It doesn’t. Not for me. (more…)
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Life Is Laughing at My Intentions
I love monsters. I love pancakes. I see no reason why we can’t move forward with this combination. I don’t even know where to start.
Okay, let’s start with last Friday. I took the day off from NaNo. Ran some errands. Did the laundry. I know. Crazy.
Saturday, my husband and I went out into the world, claimed a spot at a coffee shop and wrote our fingers to the bone. Go us!
Sunday, not as much. I wrote some.
Monday, full of good intentions, I met a few Confabulators for breakfast and then writing. I was about 2300 words behind. Not bad, actually. I could make that up in no time at all.
We talked a lot, which I needed. I ate pancakes, which I also needed. We wrote some. We talked. And then it happened.
BOOM!
Line edits for book four landed in my inbox. I think Sara and Jack probably thought a friend had died or something the way I sat wailing and holding my head in the restaurant. Line edits. And I have a week in which to get them done and sent back to my editor.
Seriously.
Originally, I thought I could do both. I should learn to multitask. I really should. And maybe I could multitask–write one book for part of the day, then edit another the rest of the day–if the two books weren’t chronological pieces of the same story. Writing book five while editing book four is too hard for me. I get confused about which events go into which book.
Last night, depressed over my stagnant word count (I’m now about 8k words behind and the gap is growing), I considered going back to another story I’ve been working on. I had to set it aside for this one. Maybe I could switch over? My brain might multitask better if the stories were completely different.
I sat and edited for nearly eight hours straight yesterday, and I’m only a third of the way through. The thought of writing more words in the evenings after that makes me want to cry. Also, I think my eyes are bleeding.
So, no. I’m not writing right now. It’s not likely I’ll win this NaNo. We’ll see what happens. Maybe I’ll do a half NaNo or 40k. That’s still halfway to the end of the book.
On the bright side, I’ve figured out how to avoid the dreaded NaNo Week Two–ignore it.
So. Next week. Will I be desperately behind on word count or exhausted from a stubborn need to catch up?
Who knows?
Every NaNo is a new adventure.
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Machete Meet Jungle
Easy to get lost in here. Chrissy, bring me the big knife! When I’ve completed a draft of a manuscript, I have to get away from it for a while. Sometimes it’s a week, sometimes it’s a little more. During that time I’ll begin work on something else or pick up another manuscript that needs some attention.
I like to sit down with a red pencil and a paper copy, but that’s not always possible.
See, when I’m on the computer I have had a hard time in the past (and especially lately) getting distracted by the Internet. I refuse to buy software that I can turn on and off if I really want to be distracted. Doesn’t make any sense to install something I won’t use and can work around. All my writing, and editing, is about rhythm and desire. Forgive the digression.
Am I ready to dive in? How much do I want this? Everything depends on the day job and its requirements of me and what’s going on with my family. I haven’t hit the lottery yet and I’m not daring enough to take the plunge on being a full-time writer. I need to make house payments and eat.
So really, the first step is getting into the proper headspace to pull out the blade and begin excising the cancerous words and phrases, marking the bits for improvement or deletion.
Then comes the cutting.
Stuff has to go, stuff has to be reworked. Things have to change.
Thank goodness it’s not all plot stuff any more. The last year has been spent mired in learning about passive voice and how awful it is. The ability to recognize it escaped me for so long that plowing through the novel to reshape those bits was daunting. I took several weeks off while doing that because I couldn’t believe how bad it was and how much I hated that I’d done it. Worse, I offered a couple of critiques where I pointed out passive voice that was obviously intentional in retrospect. I was so trapped in that mindset the crits were bad.
Learning experiences, I suppose.
But then my process for editing includes sending out the manuscript to others to read, if they have the time. Then waiting for notes back.
So I pick up something else that needs attention or I write blog posts (like this one) or I veg out in front of the TV. (Which I know isn’t good for me but sometimes I need to hear or see other people’s stories.)
And when the notes come back, it’s stepping onto square one and starting again. Wash, rinse, repeat as necessary.
In the end it’s good for me. I’m learning. Doing is learning as long as one isn’t repeating the same mistakes over and over. Spinning Wheels belong in songs, not in a writer’s process, right?
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Embrace it!
Lately I’ve been feeling the blahs. Fat. Inactive. Creatively null and void. Like I’m in a holding pattern.
All of which means one thing: It is time to break out of my comfort zone [0].
I’ve got several things I can do. I can go back to Contra dancing. I have a carpentry project planned, for which I have no appropriate tools or workspace. I’ll be taking my annual pilgrimage to Oklahoma City in a few weeks. As the weather gets warmer, I want to spend more time hiking through the woods or exploring some of the regional rail-trails on my bike.
But for now, this minute, what I can do is start re-reading last year’s Nano novel.
I had a plan last November [1]. I was going to take December off, let the novel chill a little, and look at it with fresh eyes January 1. Armed with a fresh cube of sticky notes, I would ruthlessly carve away the kruft until I had revealed What Exactly My Novel Was All About [2].
Meanwhile I had some time to kill and did so by marathoning all fourteen of Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files novels, plus the short stories. They say that Facebook is depressing because you’re comparing your gag reel to everybody else’s award winning performances. After reading Butcher, my own little urban fantasy looked like something the cat was trying to bury. Instead of a month of revisions, I quit after 20 minutes [3].
I always advise new Wrimos to “embrace the suck,” because the zero draft of anything always sucks. Well, it’s time to eat my own dog food, because digging the diamond out of this dung heap is going to really, really… well, the metaphor rather speaks for itself.
Embrace the suck, Aspen! You love the suck! And if I keep saying that, will it be true?
[0] But I don’t want to leave my comfort zone! It’s so nice and comfortable!
[1] You know what they say about plans and contact with the enemy….
[2] And then rewrite the whole thing from scratch.
[3] See prev. footnote re: Plans. -
Writer’s Chores
The short answer to this question is: I have no Earthly idea. Another short answer is: I wish I knew.
I’ve written about eight Zero Drafts in the last ten years. Most are still unfinished, a few will never see the light of day, and a few are actually complete stories from start to finish and have some potential.
But even the completed stories need work. Lots and lots of work. And the problem with that is, I am lazy. I don’t like work. Writing is one thing. Yes, writing is work, but it is also very freeing and therapeutic. And when you are writing a Zero Draft, nothing has to make sense. The writing part is fun. (more…)
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Reread, Revise, Repeat
The truth is I have very little idea what I’m doing.
I came into NaNoWriMo a little bit of a cheat. I had a novel that I’d already spent a lot of time on, and I wanted to finish it, so I used NaNo to do so. Since then, I’ve been letting it cool. I am a big believer in the advice that after completing a manuscript you should get a little distance from it before you dive back into editing.
The idea is you’re trying to see your story with fresh eyes. If you’re like me, the time away also gives you the opportunity to stop hating your characters. By the end of my novel, I was barreling toward the finish line because I didn’t want to spend one more day with those people in my head. I loved them when I created them, but familiarity does indeed breed contempt, and the gang and I had spent far too much time together.
Since completing the manuscript, I’ve sent it out to some beta readers, and I’m just now beginning to get some notes. They’ve been mainly positive, but there are also a lot of good suggestions for improvement.
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Kill Your Darlings (Week of March 10)
We think
it was William Faulkner who first said that a writer must “kill your darlings” but it’s been repeated endlessly ever since so that may be apocrypha. But any time there’s a discussion of the mechanics of a writer’s process, there should be some mention of David Mamet. He’s never visited the Cafe (at least as far as we know) but he’s influenced every storyteller out there today in some way, large or small, whether it’s realized or not. Mamet’s famous memo to the writers of The Unit is worth a read, at the very least.The Cafe regulars this week discuss our particular processes in approaching a zero draft (or first draft or sixth as the case may be) and turning it into something readable. We are forced to confront our worst writing, thankfully before anyone else sees it, and thus our own weaknesses. It can be painful but it’s certainly necessary. Like hernia surgery.
We’ve got your table over here. Our servers are on the ball and ready to attend to whatever you need. Just flag ’em down. You don’t need a red pencil.
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Getting Your Critique On
I only know one way to critique a manuscript, and that’s with a nervous heart.
Critiquing is a serious, sometimes tricky, business and shouldn’t be taken lightly. If someone trusts you enough to show you their work, consider it a privilege. Give the task the same level of respect you afford your own writing, and embrace the idea that you might be unsure of the feedback you’re giving even as you give it.
The important thing to understand is that what an author really wants is an alternate perspective. They’ve probably spent a long time with this story in their head, and now they need to put it in someone else’s hands for a while. Respect their efforts, and do your best to give them an honest assessment of their work.
At the same, though, you need to remember that no two critiques are the same. Each should be tailored to the author of the work you’re reading, and you’ll have to consider both what the writer wants and what they are able to process.
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What Makes us Confabulators
When we embarked upon this experiment a year ago, I’m not sure any of us were sure exactly what we were doing, or where we were going. The Cafe has evolved a lot since then, and we continue to define what it is we do with every assignment. I’ve learned something new about myself and my writing each week, not only because I’m forced to look closely at my process for each assignment, but also by reading how my fellow writers approach their craft. I think I’ve learned as much from them as I have from myself.
One or two specific assignments stand out in my memory, but my absolute favorite category has been Confabulation. (more…)