So, I wrote a post on how I hit "The Wall" a few weeks ago. I was in a serious funk and hardly worked on revisions at all. I think the enormity of what needed to be done scared me. And honestly, it still scares me. After I finished the draft I marked it up summarized the new scenes I wanted to write, but when I started writing, something happened. I started writing from a second character's POV, and I loved it. This changes a lot of things. Now I can't follow my marked up draft and new summaries perfectly, because I have another POV to think about. I still don't know exactly how I'm going to do this. I still haven't figured it all out. I think what scares me is that after I finish revising, I'll have to revise again and again and again. I have this vision of my story, and it's so awesome and perfect and I can see how amazing it COULD be. The hard part is figuring out how to get it to that stage...and it might take a while. And a lot of drafts.
This is why it's hard: because the hours put in and the work done and the sleep lost do not show instant results. For some writers, the results may come faster and easier than others. For me, it feels like it's taking an eternity.
Writing is NOT instant gratification.
I'm probably preaching to the choir here, but this is where I'm at. It's a long road ahead. There are no shortcuts. I guess I'm just starting to realize this. Sometimes I read about authors who can write a novel in such and such time and revise in such and such time, and I feel like I'm just SO. FAR. BEHIND. Like they're all on this happy writer's train and I'm standing in a field watching it go by, never to find it again.
But, as not to make this a whiny post, I will say this: I DO know that the time invested will be well worth it. The only way to make my story shine like it does in my "vision" is to put the work in, even if that means revising ten more drafts after this one. I believe in this story, and one day it will get there.
So, how is everyone else doing? :)
Showing posts with label Revision. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Revision. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Friday, November 11, 2011
Music and Writing and Stuff
You guys!
...I don't know. I just wanted to say that. But anyway, happy Friday! I'm currently listening to If I Die Young by The Band Perry, and I think I'm obsessed. Nay, I KNOW I'm obsessed. I literally cannot stop listening to this song on repeat. If you've never heard it, here you go (and you're welcome):
She's holding a book of Tennyson's poems, and at the very end they show a page from the poem The Lady of Shalott. *sigh* So romantic! And tragic, too, obviously.
This has got me in a dreamy, romantic mood, which is NOT the state of mind I need to be in to write. My story is not like that. Though now I want to write a story with this mood in mind. *tucks away for later* I do have a playlist for my current story, but I've been listening to the same songs for over a year and honestly, they've lost their magic. I think it's time to find new songs that capture the same mood. Also, I'm considering listening to music without lyrics for a change of pace, and also because sometimes the lyrics can be a bit distracting while trying to write.
Oh yeah, did I mention that I've chucked my revisions so far and am starting from scratch? Yup. I wasn't so far along that it really matters, it was only a couple thousand words or so. But seeing that blank page fills me with a kind of energy to write, and to make it good. When I had all those words on the page that I knew were just wrong, it sucked away my will to write. And now I'm excited again :)
SO...new Word doc., new playlist, new attitude. Well, I haven't got the playlist yet, but I will soon. Any suggestions? I need darkish stuff, but nothing too heavy. Does that make sense? One song from my playlist that will stay is Teardrop by Massive Attack, because it really captures the mood. The song itself, not the video. The video is weird. But here ya go:
I think it's so interesting how music can really affect mood and your state of mind. It's pretty cool. Except times like now, when all I want to do is listen to The Band Perry and daydream!
Do you guys listen to music while you write?
...I don't know. I just wanted to say that. But anyway, happy Friday! I'm currently listening to If I Die Young by The Band Perry, and I think I'm obsessed. Nay, I KNOW I'm obsessed. I literally cannot stop listening to this song on repeat. If you've never heard it, here you go (and you're welcome):
She's holding a book of Tennyson's poems, and at the very end they show a page from the poem The Lady of Shalott. *sigh* So romantic! And tragic, too, obviously.
This has got me in a dreamy, romantic mood, which is NOT the state of mind I need to be in to write. My story is not like that. Though now I want to write a story with this mood in mind. *tucks away for later* I do have a playlist for my current story, but I've been listening to the same songs for over a year and honestly, they've lost their magic. I think it's time to find new songs that capture the same mood. Also, I'm considering listening to music without lyrics for a change of pace, and also because sometimes the lyrics can be a bit distracting while trying to write.
Oh yeah, did I mention that I've chucked my revisions so far and am starting from scratch? Yup. I wasn't so far along that it really matters, it was only a couple thousand words or so. But seeing that blank page fills me with a kind of energy to write, and to make it good. When I had all those words on the page that I knew were just wrong, it sucked away my will to write. And now I'm excited again :)
SO...new Word doc., new playlist, new attitude. Well, I haven't got the playlist yet, but I will soon. Any suggestions? I need darkish stuff, but nothing too heavy. Does that make sense? One song from my playlist that will stay is Teardrop by Massive Attack, because it really captures the mood. The song itself, not the video. The video is weird. But here ya go:
I think it's so interesting how music can really affect mood and your state of mind. It's pretty cool. Except times like now, when all I want to do is listen to The Band Perry and daydream!
Do you guys listen to music while you write?
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
The Wall
Sometimes you're just chuggin' along, writing your story, happy and productive, and then...BAM! You stop. You look around, wondering what caused this sudden stop, but there's nothing but open fields all around. There's even some flowers and a light, refreshing breeze. You should be sailing, FLOATING through your writing at this point. Maybe you even have an outline. Maybe your draft is done and you're revising. This stop was unplanned and unsolicited.
So, you take a step forward, anticipating getting your groove back. Except...your foot hits something hard and invisible, and you can't move. You try again, with more effort this time. But nope, there's something in the way. Something huge and invisible. Something that is STOPPING YOU from writing.
No, it is not "writer's block". You have ideas and you know what needs to be done. The problem here is something far, far different:
You've hit The Wall.
The Wall is a point at which you cannot seem to go on. You have halted, and you don't know why. "Noooooooo!" You say in slow motion with a deep, tortured voice. And to that I reply "Yes," in an annoyingly calm tone. Now, I'm no expert on The Wall. The Wall can take on many forms and can be battled with many weapons. Here, I will list just a few of the ways that you can battle The Wall.
1. Go around The Wall. This may seem obvious, but The Wall is actually quite long--endlessly long. The tactic for this is to acquire an automobile to DRIVE you around The Wall. Attempting this by foot is not advised. Every hundred feet or so, you must veer sharply in the direction of The Wall to see if it's still there. If it is, keep driving. If it isn't...you've found the end of The Wall! Note: The time that it takes you to find the end of The Wall may be considerable. During this time, it's suggested that you have a brainstorm sesh and go over your outline for inspiration and motivation.
2. Burrow under The Wall. Your weapon of choice here is a shovel. Yes, you are going to work up a may-jah sweat. First, you must assess WHERE you are currently standing in relation to your writing. You want to be able to emerge from the other side of The Wall at the exact place where you wish to continue. This means that you must take a good, long stare at the writing that you have already done to gain vision for the writing that lies ahead. Is what you've already written REALLY what you wanted to write? Did that character take a wrong turn somewhere? Did you go on a sub-plot tangent two chapters back and now you're stuck in a place you don't want to be? Could that thing have happened differently in a better way which makes that other thing possible? You need to figure this out before you start digging, or else you'll end up far, far away from the vision on the other side of The Wall. Once you've figured out where the problem is, FIX IT, and then start burrowing. You will be on the other side of The Wall in no time. (Actually, it will probably take a while. But the point is that you WILL be on the other side of The Wall!)
3. Climb over The Wall. The evident choice here would be to use a ladder, but if that's what you were thinking, you have clearly underestimated the sheer HEIGHT of The Wall. They don't make ladders tall enough to climb over the wall, or EVERYONE would be climbing over their Walls and there would be no point to this post, now would there? No, you must use a long rope with a grappling hook to SCALE the wall. First, you must find the point at which you want to throw the hook. As with burrowing under the wall, proper placement is key. You have a decision to make now: Do you throw the hook right where you stand, and just continue on with your writing wherever you land on the other side? Or, do you aim to throw the hook so that you end up on a new path? This is a tough decision, but quite necessary to battle The Wall. Think hard.
4. Demolish The Wall. Weapon of choice: wrecking ball. Some of you may not want to take the time to brainstorm, go over your outline, or rewrite stray scenes. Maybe you don't care if you will have a mess to clean up later, you just want to KEEP GOING. If that's the case, this is the tactic for you. It's quite simple and straight-forward, really. You must LAUNCH the wrecking ball at The Wall, which may or may not require you to operate heavy machinery. Watch with glee as The Wall crumbles, invisible pieces of it flying everywhere. Repeat this until there is a gaping hole in The Wall which you can walk right through. Once on the other side, DO NOT look back at the mess you have made (though it is invisible, you will be able to FEEL it). Just keep going, and worry about the mess later.
And so, as you see, you have many options for battling The Wall. Currently I am standing in front of my own Wall, assessing the situation. Normally, I think I'd be more of a burrower, but since I'm still at the beginning of revision and there won't be too much of a mess, I think I'll go with demolishing it. And anyway, one of my writer friends graciously loaned me a wrecking ball.
So, you take a step forward, anticipating getting your groove back. Except...your foot hits something hard and invisible, and you can't move. You try again, with more effort this time. But nope, there's something in the way. Something huge and invisible. Something that is STOPPING YOU from writing.
No, it is not "writer's block". You have ideas and you know what needs to be done. The problem here is something far, far different:
You've hit The Wall.
The Wall is a point at which you cannot seem to go on. You have halted, and you don't know why. "Noooooooo!" You say in slow motion with a deep, tortured voice. And to that I reply "Yes," in an annoyingly calm tone. Now, I'm no expert on The Wall. The Wall can take on many forms and can be battled with many weapons. Here, I will list just a few of the ways that you can battle The Wall.
1. Go around The Wall. This may seem obvious, but The Wall is actually quite long--endlessly long. The tactic for this is to acquire an automobile to DRIVE you around The Wall. Attempting this by foot is not advised. Every hundred feet or so, you must veer sharply in the direction of The Wall to see if it's still there. If it is, keep driving. If it isn't...you've found the end of The Wall! Note: The time that it takes you to find the end of The Wall may be considerable. During this time, it's suggested that you have a brainstorm sesh and go over your outline for inspiration and motivation.
2. Burrow under The Wall. Your weapon of choice here is a shovel. Yes, you are going to work up a may-jah sweat. First, you must assess WHERE you are currently standing in relation to your writing. You want to be able to emerge from the other side of The Wall at the exact place where you wish to continue. This means that you must take a good, long stare at the writing that you have already done to gain vision for the writing that lies ahead. Is what you've already written REALLY what you wanted to write? Did that character take a wrong turn somewhere? Did you go on a sub-plot tangent two chapters back and now you're stuck in a place you don't want to be? Could that thing have happened differently in a better way which makes that other thing possible? You need to figure this out before you start digging, or else you'll end up far, far away from the vision on the other side of The Wall. Once you've figured out where the problem is, FIX IT, and then start burrowing. You will be on the other side of The Wall in no time. (Actually, it will probably take a while. But the point is that you WILL be on the other side of The Wall!)
3. Climb over The Wall. The evident choice here would be to use a ladder, but if that's what you were thinking, you have clearly underestimated the sheer HEIGHT of The Wall. They don't make ladders tall enough to climb over the wall, or EVERYONE would be climbing over their Walls and there would be no point to this post, now would there? No, you must use a long rope with a grappling hook to SCALE the wall. First, you must find the point at which you want to throw the hook. As with burrowing under the wall, proper placement is key. You have a decision to make now: Do you throw the hook right where you stand, and just continue on with your writing wherever you land on the other side? Or, do you aim to throw the hook so that you end up on a new path? This is a tough decision, but quite necessary to battle The Wall. Think hard.
4. Demolish The Wall. Weapon of choice: wrecking ball. Some of you may not want to take the time to brainstorm, go over your outline, or rewrite stray scenes. Maybe you don't care if you will have a mess to clean up later, you just want to KEEP GOING. If that's the case, this is the tactic for you. It's quite simple and straight-forward, really. You must LAUNCH the wrecking ball at The Wall, which may or may not require you to operate heavy machinery. Watch with glee as The Wall crumbles, invisible pieces of it flying everywhere. Repeat this until there is a gaping hole in The Wall which you can walk right through. Once on the other side, DO NOT look back at the mess you have made (though it is invisible, you will be able to FEEL it). Just keep going, and worry about the mess later.
And so, as you see, you have many options for battling The Wall. Currently I am standing in front of my own Wall, assessing the situation. Normally, I think I'd be more of a burrower, but since I'm still at the beginning of revision and there won't be too much of a mess, I think I'll go with demolishing it. And anyway, one of my writer friends graciously loaned me a wrecking ball.
Friday, October 28, 2011
Revision: a.k.a I Liken My Manuscript to Humpty Dumpty
First of all, happy Friday! Woo hoo! Don't you just love a good Friday?
As I mentioned in my previous post, I recently finished the first draft of my novel. This was a huge feat, and I'm proud of myself for actually finishing the darn thing. But the thing is...it's not really finished.
At all.
Any writers out there will know what I'm talking about. Now that the joys of drafting are over, I can look back and see how naive I really was. Let me explain. To do this, I shall demonstrate my thought process over the course of writing the draft.
Middle of book
To the untrained eye, this may look like I'm just becoming increasingly more negative. But really, that's not the case. What was happening was that I was learning what it means to put a story together, and that it's not easy, and it doesn't come out right the first time around. At least not for me.
When I first started writing I thought that you wrote your book, edited a little here, changed some words around there, and voila! Done. I realize now how utterly wrong I was. Revising is NOT just going through the story line by line and making the words pretty. It's much more than that. It's literally dissecting your manuscript scene by scene, wadding through the garbage to find the salvageable stuff, tightening the plot, the characters, the dialogue, throwing out A LOT, adding stuff back in, and trying to put Humpty Dumpty back together again. But making him prettier, smarter, and unbreakable. It's kind of overwhelming.
Yes, I just called my manuscript Humpty Dumpty. Except with revision, it's like he already fell of the wall once and is cracking all over, but I'm the one who has to push him off a second time to really BREAK him apart...in order to rebuild. Make sense, maybe? Am I just weird? OF COURSE I AM.
I'm still at the beginning stages of revision, but I can tell that this story will be QUITE different from the story I currently have. It's going to be an insane amount of work, and I have no idea how long it will take. But I do know that my story will be better for it. And that's really what matters, right? Because once that final draft is done (whenever that may be) I will finally have written the story I set out to write in the first place.
So, it's time to go push poor Humpty off the wall...he'll thank me for it later.
Oh! I almost forgot...here's a nice little visual to leave you with for the weekend!:
This is a picture I took right after printing the draft for the first time. I was all proud and feeling artsy. The manuscript posed like a pro! Just looked at that nice clean stack of pages!
Okay, now really...off to revise!
As I mentioned in my previous post, I recently finished the first draft of my novel. This was a huge feat, and I'm proud of myself for actually finishing the darn thing. But the thing is...it's not really finished.
At all.
Any writers out there will know what I'm talking about. Now that the joys of drafting are over, I can look back and see how naive I really was. Let me explain. To do this, I shall demonstrate my thought process over the course of writing the draft.
Beginning of book
Me: Wow, look at how much I wrote! I'm pretty good at this writing stuff. I'm totally going to be an author in no time.
Beginning of book
Me: Yes! The plot is thickening. I'm genius. GENIUS! The story is flowing! This is actually turning into a BOOK!
Middle of book
Me: Um...what is this story about again?
Me: I think I need an outline. Yeah, I really think I need an outline. What am I even writing right now? WHAT IS THIS CRAP?
Middle of book
Me: Thank you, outline, for showing me the light. Yes yes, I know, I should have had you from the beginning. All that matters is that you're here now, and I love you. *caresses outline*
End of book
Me: La la la, Let me read everything from the beginning just to see how the story is flowing...GAH! The entire beginning needs to be changed. The. Entire. Beginning. How do I keep going when I can't stop staring at the mess that is behind me?!
End of book
Me: *deep breath* Okay. Everything is crap. It's crap, okay? But I kind of understand what the story is about now. I just need to finish this draft, and then make it the story I want it to be.
After the draft is done
Me: The first draft is done! Yes! YESSSS! I am awesome! Except...no. No, I'm not. The whole thing is garbage and needs to be rewritten. *sobs*
To the untrained eye, this may look like I'm just becoming increasingly more negative. But really, that's not the case. What was happening was that I was learning what it means to put a story together, and that it's not easy, and it doesn't come out right the first time around. At least not for me.
When I first started writing I thought that you wrote your book, edited a little here, changed some words around there, and voila! Done. I realize now how utterly wrong I was. Revising is NOT just going through the story line by line and making the words pretty. It's much more than that. It's literally dissecting your manuscript scene by scene, wadding through the garbage to find the salvageable stuff, tightening the plot, the characters, the dialogue, throwing out A LOT, adding stuff back in, and trying to put Humpty Dumpty back together again. But making him prettier, smarter, and unbreakable. It's kind of overwhelming.
Yes, I just called my manuscript Humpty Dumpty. Except with revision, it's like he already fell of the wall once and is cracking all over, but I'm the one who has to push him off a second time to really BREAK him apart...in order to rebuild. Make sense, maybe? Am I just weird? OF COURSE I AM.
I'm still at the beginning stages of revision, but I can tell that this story will be QUITE different from the story I currently have. It's going to be an insane amount of work, and I have no idea how long it will take. But I do know that my story will be better for it. And that's really what matters, right? Because once that final draft is done (whenever that may be) I will finally have written the story I set out to write in the first place.
So, it's time to go push poor Humpty off the wall...he'll thank me for it later.
Oh! I almost forgot...here's a nice little visual to leave you with for the weekend!:
This is a picture I took right after printing the draft for the first time. I was all proud and feeling artsy. The manuscript posed like a pro! Just looked at that nice clean stack of pages!
Okay, now really...off to revise!
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