Beyond the Delete Button — Revisions and Its Many Facets

When I think of revision, I think about cutting back – deleting sentences, shortening word count, streamlining the plot, making the story as tight as possible. But revision isn't only about cutting. It's about consistency, language, conflict, character, and congruency. And many of these qualities involved adding to the story in addition to taking away. 

This is what I've been working on this week: adding to my story. Writing new bits of dialogue, new scenes, new details. And so far, it hasn't been too bad. But that's because I've left the hardest parts for last. See, I have this big, long checklist of revisions I have to make to my novel. It's nine pages long actually. But after about a week of work, I am very happy to say I have successfully crossed off at least half of those bullets. Perhaps more like two-thirds even. But the remaining third holds the harder bullets. The things that my brain hasn't quite come up with a solution for yet. 

One of my problems is that I need to introduce one of my characters earlier — the king. The reader knows about him from the beginning, and gathers lot of information about him along the way through the dialogue of others and general exposition (for if a story has a king, he is inevitably known about on some level). But these methods are more indirect. The reader doesn't get to see the king directly; she's not forming a judgment based on her experience of watching the king, but only through the perspective of others characters. 

So I need to insert the king into earlier scenes. I need to allow the reader to see who he is, so that later, when he plays a pivotal role in the action, my readers have a strong background that will contribute to the reading of his actions. The reader needs a foundation; a preparedness of sorts for the moment when the king becomes important. 

This has not been the easiest of tasks for me, hence why I've left it for the end of this revision cycle. But it's something I must tackle this week, for sure. And here are some of the ways I plan on doing so: 

• Making a timeline. Having a succint visual of all that happens in the story allows me to see a map of the storyline that isn't spread out over almost three hundred pages. Viewing scenes side by side, I then have a better idea of the gaps that exist, the breaks in the action, and the scenes where I can insert key moment to expand my reader's understanding of my character.

• Character maps. I am sure this could be a called a wide array of things, and that this term might actually mean different things to different people. But basically, I am going to track all the scenes where he appears throughout my novel, and what he reveals in those scene, or how each of his appearances function. Then, I came see a collective picture of what I have revealed to the reader, helping me see both the strengths and weakness of his presentation within the narrative. 

• Establishing character goals. What do I want the reader to know about the king? What expectations have I inherently established through the indirect descriptions of him, and how does his presence deliver (or not deliver) on these? Knowing how I want him to appear is half the battle. Then I actually have something to compare the represented character against the intended character. 

In the end, revision isn't just about cutting. I know my strategy for dealing with the king may leave me with more work to do in the end, but coming up with a game plan is half the battle, and it brings me that much closer to the polished work I am hoping to achieve. 

Revision is about looking at the big picture and seeing how each little details fits, making sure that everything within the story adds to the quality rather than subtracts. And revision looks as different from day to day as it does from project to project. So as I cut and add and map out characters, I am going to continue to take it step by step, and try remember that in the end, thinking and mapping and planning and adding all have their place. All of the work matters. 

Creating Discipline All Year Round!

The first day I started revising, after I pushed through my nerves and sat at my computer and crossed the start line, I think I felt something like this: "Wow, this feels so good! I'm so glad to be back in my story. I missed my characters. I really love this. What a surprise! Maybe revision won't be as bad as I thought!" 

Several days later, my thoughts settled somewhere in the land of, "Hmm, this is actually not so fun. It's kind of hard. I don't really know what I'm doing. I have my lists, sure, and I've done this before, but do I really know how to do this?" 

A few more days later, after several days of work and evening activities, and a fun weekend, this is what I am now thinking: "I need discipline!" 

The funny thing about life is that time just speeds by. In high school and college, I remember so many adults talking about life after school — how time just flies by and weeks become months and soon enough you look back and several years have passed. I always felt kind of disconnected from that idea, and slightly tired of feeling as though all these people were trying to preach to us 'youth' about how we should enjoy the time while we have it. But now, at the still-young-but-wiser age of twenty-four, I understand this sentiment better. When you go to work every day, each week, months can suddenly disappear. It's June, already? we all say. And when there is no forced structure of semesters and class deadlines and summers off, one season flows into another and into the next. 

Time passes quickly. So if your not careful with your work, you, and I, can lose a whole lot of time that leads to a whole lot of work not getting done. 

I know I've only lost a week, really. But this morning, I was shocked to realize just how much revising I did not do this week. Yikes! I don't want every week to be like that. In fact, I can't afford for every week to be as lax. I have to stick to some sort of schedule. And while it can be more relaxed and fluid than the one I had while in school, I can't let it go entirely. Not if I want to have specific writing goals. Not if I want to continue and produce a lot of work each year. 

Summer is a hard season. We all want to be outside, cookouts abound, and naps and ice cream just seem so enticing. Summer is specifically a hard season for writing because swinging in the park and meeting with friends and general relaxing are so much more fun than revising. But discipline is an all year requirement. Whether you are big into writing or exercising, perfecting a craft or learning a new skill, stick to it-ness is something we all need. 

So this week, I've decided I'm going to write out my revising schedule in advance. I've set specific goals, already made some social plans so I know just which days I'll be busy and what time of the day I should set aside for writing, and mapped out some revision goals for the next few weeks. To some, this may sound silly, or even too rigid. But I need to be committed to my work. I need to get revision done so I can send my work out to agents, and so I can start on my next project. 

Rest is important. I know that. Especially after two intense years of work and schooling. But discipline is really the only way to make sure we all achieve our goals. So while I hope to enjoy the summer, I also hope to get work done, too. Wishing you luck! I'll report back later, hopefully to say I've made lots and lots of progress!  

The Week I Didn't Write — Or Thought I Wasn't Going To

With only a conclusion, a final proofread, and one final class to attend, I am just hours short of completing my degree. Wow. How the time flies.

This week has been a relatively easy week for me. With only one paper left to worry about, it was a low pressure week as I allowed myself ample time to outline, write here and there, and just feel the unique sense of "yes, I have to do this paper, but no, I don't actually have to freak out about it because I have time to spare and everything is totally under control."

So I also decided that I wasn't going to worry about novel either. I would take a week off from writing. I need to start my revision soon, but I also needed to give my mind some time to rest, I figured. Time would allow me perspective on my work and also the mental recouping I absolutely am in need of. But as the week went on, a funny thing began to happen. Ideas started popping up everywhere, and once they did, it was like my brain just wouldn't stop.

I read a newspaper article — therein waited a great new topic for a book. I read a blog post — it sparked the idea for a great new setting perfect for an ensemble cast of characters. I thought about my novel — and an idea here, and a line of dialogue there.  I looked back at some of my other story ideas as I contemplate what will be next project later in the summer/fall, and with each section of my notebook I read, ideas just started flowing until I had no idea which I'll choose because they all seem so appealing right now!

I was amazed. I still am, hence why I'm blogging about it. Why, on the week that I decided to really take a break, did my mind suddenly kick into wonderful, creative overdrive? Why was I constantly scrambling to get down that idea before I left for a meeting, in the midst of conversation, and right before I was about to fall asleep? Don't get me wrong. It's a welcomed experience, and certainly good for my current and future projects! But it got me thinking about why this happened. And these are the things I came up with:

First, I definitely think this is an outgrowth of the discipline of writing. For a whole year now, I've been very dedicated to two different projects. Not to say I didn't practice the discipline of writing before, but this year was different. The year might have even been one spent on overdrive in terms of my writing, but that's okay, because I truly learned just how far discipline and ambition can take me. So now, I'm used to writing rigorously. I am used to holding myself to a demanding schedule. And while I think I can afford to tone it down at times, discipline creates better writing. And it keeps my brain thinking and exploring and creating. Certainly a plus!

I also think that with the end of school comes the advent of new things. New projects, new freedom, more time to write what I want and not work on papers that might be stimulating but are not actually helping me with my novel. I've known school was coming to a close for a long time now, and that freedom was just around the corner. But now I can feel it. And I'm excited. So I guess all these ideas are bubbling to the surface because I can now actually pursue them. I can write one project while planning the next. Maybe I'll even try writing two at once (but only if I am really having an overflow of ideas happening — or on second thought, maybe not!). Regardless, I think my subconscious is responding to the imminent freedom. And again, I'll take it. It's always been to have too many ideas than too few.

Finally, as I begin to revise my most recent novel, which I love a lot, I am also looking forward to writing new things. Throughout this year in particular, I have truly discovered the benefits, and the enjoyment within revising. But for me, I think the thrill of the new idea and the writing of that project that has long awaited me still outweighs the excitement of revising. Hence my brain constantly looking forward to the next first draft somewhere down the line.

So whatever the reasons, I'll certainly take it. It feels good to know that as I finish school, I am still ready to work. I am ready to pursue my writing with just as much gusto as I had during the school year, when deadlines and requirements spurred me forward. Only now, my love of story telling can be sole my motivating factor, and I can work in my own way, on whatever I want, whenever I want! It's quite liberating, I must say. But I am certainly indebted to the schooling that has helped me to get here. And I'm really looking forward to the future :)

You Don't Have To Be An Illustrator — The Importance of Creating Visuals When Building A World

Creating a new, fictional world requires a lot of planning: outlines, lists, brainstorming, and character sketches. But one thing I've also found to be very helpful for my new novel is the creation of maps! Maps have been crucial for me to visualize and better understand the world that I am creating — and especially helpful in keeping things straight.

Much like the benefits of outlining your novel before you start, visual representations of your fictional world truly add a lot to an author's ability to conceptualize the story before you really dive into writing. But for me, these maps have been particularly helpful during the writing process itself. Of course, I am not talking about full-color, picture book ready images here. But the more I have gotten into my story, the more detailed my maps and pictures become.

Regardless of what your visuals actually look like, the first benefit of these artistic representations is your heightened ability to visualize what your character is actually seeing. When you first determine the spatial relations of things such as a castle, the size of a city, or of an important room within the story, you then have a better sense of just how long it might take your character to get from one side of the city to another; or just where that secret key should be placed within the room so it is just above eye level. The more I understand the world in which my characters inhabit, the better descriptions and details I will be able to provide. And the better descriptions present within the text, the more my reader will ultimately be able to visualize the world herself.

Not only do these kinds of illustrated aids help me better visualize my characters' world, but they also allow me to keep my story consistent throughout the narrative. If your character only walks down a certain street once somewhere in the first third of your novel, and then, in the last third, you want to have her walk down the same street but head in a different direction it can be easy to forget if she originally went to the left or to the right. So, instead of constantly having to flip back through my pages to uncover this little but important detail, or having to flip through to find many of the other such details present in your book, referring to the map that you've created can be a great help. Not only does it provide consistency, which is definitely a key component of world building, but it also saves you a lot of hassle. It's easy to refer to the map of the square, or the palace, or the kingdom itself in order to make sure I am accurately describing the placement of a certain landmark in relation to another, or how a character would get from one place to another.

One trick that I've found to help me keep things straight as I work through my novel and refer to my variety of maps I've created is the use of cardinal directions, meaning north, south, east, and west. By placing a small compass rose in the corner of my visuals, I've been able to easily understand where everything is geographically and most importantly where things are in relation to one another. In terms of consistency this becomes highly important. Although I do have one map representing the entire world of the story, when I am working on both creating and writing about specific locations such as the castle or the city square, I want to make sure it all lines up correctly. Much like I need to make sure I know if my character took a right or a left to get to her friends house, because I know my character will be traversing the city many times throughout the story, and even go beyond the natural city limits later on in the book, I've found that using the cardinal directions has also proved helpful in remaining consistent.

Writing visually is a key component of all good novels. You want to make sure to place your reader inside your world, allowing them to get a true feel for the place. Maybe I'm not an artist, but your visuals really don't have to be. All you need is a basic sketch of your place, some labeled sections, and really, you're good to go.

These are all tools to help you understand the world better anyway. Because in the end, we're all creating something out of nothing — a place out of no place — so we want the world to be as well thought out and clearly conveyed as possible.

Outlining — The Trick to World Building

The start of a new project means a return to the stage of prep work and research, note taking and just general brainstorming. But this time, as I dive into my novel, I've also incorporated extensive outlining in the early stages of my writing. A divergence from my normal practices, I've found outline to be extremely helpful, going far beyond what I expected and opening up lots of new ideas.

Typically, or, for my past three works, I didn't really do any outlining at all — not in the sense of a chronological, written down game plan of all the things that would happen in my novel or the events I wanted to make sure to get to. My "outlining" instead took place mostly in my mind. I thought about concepts and jotted things down, and overall, had a really strong sense of my story's characters and conflicts by the time I actually started writing. I also kept a decently extensive series of lists of characters, soccer diagrams, and a time line of events. I mean, when you have a whole soccer team to keep track of and you want to make sure that one boy is not being mistake for another, or place someone in the wrong position, those types of lists become pretty important. But these came as I was writing the manuscript, rather than before.

For this project, however, as soon as I got the idea, I know it had to be different. I couldn't just think about things and then take off writing. I had to do a thorough preparation; and a preparation that was entirely different than my usual plan of attack. It's funny how projects can mandate such different approaches, as if the idea was demanding to be treated differently and I just had to acquiesce. But that's what happened, and so, I began my outline. And man, has this outline been helpful!

I still did plenty of mental prep work in which I thought about major questions, characters, conflicts, and the story arc. But when I actually began outlining, I realized just how much this project, or really me — the writer of this story — needs an outline. It has helped me to see the greater story while also narrowing in on important little details and weaving them through the narrative. Because I know exactly (or presumably) what will happen in chapter ten, I am able to write a better chapter one, because I know where the story is going, and just what the reader needs to be aware of from the beginning.

To be honest, my new manuscript is a bit of a divergence from my regular ideas. I am entering into a world of fairy tale, and fantasy, and as such, the presence of an outline helps me to feel more comfortable. I think I need to know more about the plot with this novel, because fairy tales have certain conventions, and building a world that is so different from our own requires a new type of work from me. After talking to my new and truly fantastic mentor for the spring semester, Ms. Lauren Wohl, I was affirmed in my outlining process, particularly for this type of novel. Lauren said that with world building, the details and nuances of a society become more complicated, and outlining, as well as listing and diagraming and even drawing maps can help you build a world that is consistent and most importantly understandable for your reader.

She also mentioned that Walter Dean Myers outlines so meticulously, and with such extensive detail that when it comes time to write the manuscript, he is basically just typing, just connecting all the dots, as his outline is truly the draft of his novel. And not to say that we all have to create such a robust outline, but in many ways, outlining creates the foundation for a novel. It is like a map you draw for yourself to work your way through your novel, and ultimately arrive in your destination of choice.

Outlining has helped me have a clearer picture of my story, and where all the pertinent information needs to be inserted, and what that pertinent information even is at all. It's also inspired new creativity, as while I am working on one section, I often get a brilliant idea for a previous one, or one yet to come.

So perhaps I will continue outlining for every story I write. Who knows? But truly, I love it! Outlining has definitely helped me and I've only just begun.