As I started my first rewrite two days ago, I quickly learned how important it is to delete when you're rewriting. When I finished my first draft a mere 10 days ago, I had 282 double-spaced pages. I am now down to 279 pages.
I started my rewrite with the idea that my original opening had to go. It was two pages of unnecessary drivel describing how an impending storm mirrored the emotions of uncertainty that plagued one of my main characters. It was good writing, don't get me wrong. However, it was what I've learned is called "purple prose," and it wasn't needed. My finger hovered over that delete key as I was about to use it for the first time. I mean, I was starting off my first rewrite by shaving off the first two pages! At this rate, was I even going to have a story left by the time I was done?
Another large section of fluffy dialog was the next to go. This was probably a little less than a page. I still hesitated, but it was a little easier with my first deletion behind me.
Now that I'm 30 pages into my rewrite, I'm able to highlight those pages and paragraphs and hit that delete key with reckless abandon! I can hardly wait to see the trimmed down version that I'm left with when I'm done. In the meantime, I would like to introduce you to my new friend, The Delete Key.
3.17.2010
3.13.2010
Motivation Gets Squashed by Goals
Each day seems to present itself with new motivations--or lack thereof.
I have read the first 145 pages of my 282-page, double-spaced manuscript, and have been trucking along quite nicely, taking pages of notes about scenes to add, sentences to remove, and dialog to clean up (or dirty up, depending on the speaker). And now, on this quiet Saturday morning, while my children are still sound asleep and while I drink my coffee and listen to my husband playing World of Warcraft in the other room, I have no desire to look at any of it. This is the absolute ideal time for me to be making some ground on getting to the highly-anticipated next step--my first rewrite. And all my mind wants to do is research publishers and agents and whether or not to submit my manuscript to a site where it be could be seen by many acquisitions editors.
Yes, I know that the darn thing needs to be nearly, if not completely, done before I jump to that step! But for some reason, knowing it and doing something about it are entirely different entities.
So, now I have to wonder about my personality. Back in November, I was really close to reaching my word goal of at least 70,000 words for my novel. I had it figured out that I only needed to write 800 words a day to have my first draft by Thanksgiving. That was a piece of cake, I told myself. I had been writing more than that each day on average, at least on the days I was finding time to write. So all I had to do was make myself find an hour each day to devote to writing. And since most of my story was already in my head, I just had to get it out, right? Wrong! I didn't touch the thing for almost a week.
Now here I am, back to the present. I have been breathing this novel. My characters have been revealing minor details about themselves to me, as well as letting me deeper into their psyche. It has all been in the forefront of my mind for the last week, and all I've wanted is some nice, quiet, uninterrupted time to work on it. Then I foolishly told myself, if I take two weeks to read it (easy, right?) and then concentrate on rewriting just 10 pages a day (also easy), I could have my second draft done in six weeks' time. Good news: It didn't slow me down. I was still working at a nice little clip. But then I did something even worse. I set long-term goals. I actually made a goal to finish this, write the sequel, and be ready to write the third by the time NaNoWriMo arrives in November. Dumb move!
I remember being taught how to set long-term and short-term goals back in junior high, but now I have to ask myself, does goal-setting hold me back? And if goal-setting does hold me back, what is supposed to motivate me?
I have read the first 145 pages of my 282-page, double-spaced manuscript, and have been trucking along quite nicely, taking pages of notes about scenes to add, sentences to remove, and dialog to clean up (or dirty up, depending on the speaker). And now, on this quiet Saturday morning, while my children are still sound asleep and while I drink my coffee and listen to my husband playing World of Warcraft in the other room, I have no desire to look at any of it. This is the absolute ideal time for me to be making some ground on getting to the highly-anticipated next step--my first rewrite. And all my mind wants to do is research publishers and agents and whether or not to submit my manuscript to a site where it be could be seen by many acquisitions editors.
Yes, I know that the darn thing needs to be nearly, if not completely, done before I jump to that step! But for some reason, knowing it and doing something about it are entirely different entities.
So, now I have to wonder about my personality. Back in November, I was really close to reaching my word goal of at least 70,000 words for my novel. I had it figured out that I only needed to write 800 words a day to have my first draft by Thanksgiving. That was a piece of cake, I told myself. I had been writing more than that each day on average, at least on the days I was finding time to write. So all I had to do was make myself find an hour each day to devote to writing. And since most of my story was already in my head, I just had to get it out, right? Wrong! I didn't touch the thing for almost a week.
Now here I am, back to the present. I have been breathing this novel. My characters have been revealing minor details about themselves to me, as well as letting me deeper into their psyche. It has all been in the forefront of my mind for the last week, and all I've wanted is some nice, quiet, uninterrupted time to work on it. Then I foolishly told myself, if I take two weeks to read it (easy, right?) and then concentrate on rewriting just 10 pages a day (also easy), I could have my second draft done in six weeks' time. Good news: It didn't slow me down. I was still working at a nice little clip. But then I did something even worse. I set long-term goals. I actually made a goal to finish this, write the sequel, and be ready to write the third by the time NaNoWriMo arrives in November. Dumb move!
I remember being taught how to set long-term and short-term goals back in junior high, but now I have to ask myself, does goal-setting hold me back? And if goal-setting does hold me back, what is supposed to motivate me?
3.10.2010
Following the Advice of Others
I have read through the first 80 pages of my rough draft so far, and I'm glad that I am not doing the rewrite yet. Yes, I've made a few minor changes here and there, but those were just because I didn't want to miss them the next time through. Whoever all of these established novelists are before me, they really know what they are talking about!
By reading through the first part of my novel again, I have discovered how my early characters are so vastly different from the characters they turned out to be. Much of the early dialog does not quite fit the personality of my characters, and so a lot of tweaking will have to made to it when I do start my rewrite. By not starting my rewrite yet, I have time to sit back and come up with dialog that my characters actually would have with each other. I know my characters so much better now than I did when I first started this journey with them. It would not be fair for me to not represent them properly.
I also made a huge, story-changing decision last night. When I started writing, the story in my head was about three friends, with one being the central character, and the other two being major supporters. As the story came together on paper, more was revealed about my major supporters than I even knew existed. Last night I realized that I have enough backstory to bring out the struggles of the supporting characters more and give them more of the limelight. And since I envision at least one, maybe two following books on these characters, that will give me more to play with in the subsequent novel/s.
So, here's to all of the published writers who are willing to share what they have learned with the world on their blogs. I am very thankful for all of the tips I have learned from them. I hope that as I refine my own way of writing I don't forget to also share what I'm learning along the way.
By reading through the first part of my novel again, I have discovered how my early characters are so vastly different from the characters they turned out to be. Much of the early dialog does not quite fit the personality of my characters, and so a lot of tweaking will have to made to it when I do start my rewrite. By not starting my rewrite yet, I have time to sit back and come up with dialog that my characters actually would have with each other. I know my characters so much better now than I did when I first started this journey with them. It would not be fair for me to not represent them properly.
I also made a huge, story-changing decision last night. When I started writing, the story in my head was about three friends, with one being the central character, and the other two being major supporters. As the story came together on paper, more was revealed about my major supporters than I even knew existed. Last night I realized that I have enough backstory to bring out the struggles of the supporting characters more and give them more of the limelight. And since I envision at least one, maybe two following books on these characters, that will give me more to play with in the subsequent novel/s.
So, here's to all of the published writers who are willing to share what they have learned with the world on their blogs. I am very thankful for all of the tips I have learned from them. I hope that as I refine my own way of writing I don't forget to also share what I'm learning along the way.
3.08.2010
The First Gigantic Step
I just completed the first draft of my first novel yesterday. What an accomplishment! I can hardly believe that I completed it, yet at the same time I want to keep moving forward with it, although it has reached the end.
From everything I have read online, I guess my next step is not to start my rewrite, as I have such a strong desire to do, but to just read through it once without making any changes. This will be the hardest part of entire process, I'm sure, as I'm such a perfectionist about my writing that I'll want to make at least minor changes on each and every page. (I've already reread this blog post half a dozen times, and I'm still writing it!) But who am I to question those who have tread these waters before me? I will take the advice that I've read written in so many different ways, by so many different writers, and I will fight the temptation to start rewriting, read through the novel, and take lots of notes along the way.
From everything I have read online, I guess my next step is not to start my rewrite, as I have such a strong desire to do, but to just read through it once without making any changes. This will be the hardest part of entire process, I'm sure, as I'm such a perfectionist about my writing that I'll want to make at least minor changes on each and every page. (I've already reread this blog post half a dozen times, and I'm still writing it!) But who am I to question those who have tread these waters before me? I will take the advice that I've read written in so many different ways, by so many different writers, and I will fight the temptation to start rewriting, read through the novel, and take lots of notes along the way.
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