Dilemmas

Anyone following this blog knows that I have been dilligently working on the revision of my 2011 Nanowrimo Novel The Flamingo Princess. Anyone who knows me personally will remember my 1st Nanowrimo when I wouldn't shut up about the mermaid novel I wrote, Tails.

The image from my mermaid writing shirt!

Sometime in 2010, Tails and I "broke-up" because I wasn't ready to edit it. I was having so much trouble with the revision (even though I knew I need to chop the first 3 chapters (11,000 words)). Then there was the little fact that in early 2010 no one would have looked twice at a mermaid/fairy tale retelling/steampunk novel. Shelving it seemed like the best idea.

Now, it's time to re-evaluate. I'm seeing a trend forming, for both steampunk and mermaid. I've developed and itch to return to this novel I wrote 3 years ago. But, a part of me really wants to stick it out and finish my WIP.

So, after much dilberation, I've decided to shelve The Flamingo Princess and pick Tails back up. I'll apply my knowledge of revision I've learned this year.

Starting with the read-through.

....

I knew that Tails was a bit of a trainwreck. Three years later, a trainwreck is an understatement. It's basically 50,000 words of me talking out a concept. Info dumps run rampant; characters devoid of personality; and a pacing that would make snails cry. So far the only thing I'm keeping from the draft is the line: The silence between them was heavy like iron. I'm ready to just stop reading, throw the whole draft in the trash, and just start writing from strach.

That would not be the writely thing to do. One thing I've learned from my newly sheleved WIP is the read through is essential.

So, I'm not quiting. My husband has made a very helpful suggestion: record the rest of the book as an audio book, so I can listen to it and stop looking at how awful the writing is. (He's under the mistaken impression that it's not as bad as I say it is.) So, I'm trying that (while secretly rewriting the 1st scene.)

Once it's finished recording, I'll see if I can post some of it here, and report if it was a successful tool for getting me through this first read-through.

The First Read Through

So besides "The Wait," the only other piece of revision advice I've been given is to read my draft through from start to beginning without revising anything. Just a straight read through.

This is harder than it sounds.

If you're like me, you're itching to start throwing yourself into revision. To take out this scene and that scene and rewrite this scene...

Let me step back just for a moment. This particular manuscript I wrote entirely without an outline. Up until now, I'd only written lengthy pieces with at least a basic outline so I never got stuck and always knew where it was going. But November '11 was fast approaching and I had this concept and no time to develop it because I was planning my wedding.

So I barreled straight into November armed with my idea and just started writing. For me, this has worked better than any outline I could have come up with. Thus, when I started writing, I had no idea where it was going to end, or looking back, who the main character was.

This could be why the "Read Through" was particularly helpful to me as a first step. Even though it hadn't been more than a few weeks, I'd completely forgotten whole chunks of my book. Scenes, characters, great lines, major plot points. I have no memory of even writing them. Some of them will be useful, some I'll probably lose.

Still, for the first time, I was able to look at the draft as a whole. The Read Through allowed to figure out my next step to finishing this manuscript.

Unfortunately, it's not rewriting - yet. It's outlining.

Now that I know where I want the story to go, and the basics of how it gets there, I know that I need to change some events that don't work any more. Like the whole first 30 pages, or the role of some characters. Or a bit of foreshadowing that could be in the very first scene.

But I will admit, that during my read through, I didn't just read. I went ahead and x-ed out passages I knew couldn't be saved, or at least didn't need to be there. I highlighted lines that made me giggle, or that I had forgotten but were particularly good. I made notes about how to revamped scenes or add some detail that would become relevant later, even redesign a character or subplot - but I only made notes in the margins or on the back to the page. I didn't write anything new.

So I did do the whole read through, and I think, for the first time, this could be the first big step towards actually getting through the revision process. I also realized that this won't be my only read through.

Read throughs are an important tool for revision because it let's me look at the big picture. I've never been able to do a read through before, which could be because of a combination of factors, but, it could be that the story wasn't interesting enough to keep my interest. Maybe it's a good thing I've shelved my other projects because if I found them boring, then I'm sure others will. It could have been the first sign that they weren't drafts that needed to be revised.

Or it could be my other theory - that I'm terrible at beginnings.

But, if I could go back and change something about doing the first read through, it would be to take notes about what happened in each chapter. This would make the next step I need, outlining, so much easier...