When to Revise A Book
September 3rd 2010 04:33
Everybody knows-at least, I hope everybody here knows-that all books need revision. Great books aren't written exactly, they're rewritten, and that's a crucial thing to remember as a writer, no matter who you are and how good you think your first draft is. Sure, there might be sentences, paragraphs, maybe if you're lucky entire scenes that will go from draft to draft untouched, but overall, your novel will need revision.
There are at least a thousand questions that can be asked about revision, and not one of them can be answered the same way for every person except maybe 'do I need to revise'. Like anything else in writing, it's complicated and there are as many answers as there are writers.
The question I would like to discuss today is the question of when to start revising your novel.
Of course I'm going to start with the ambiguous answer, which is, elegantly put, when you and your novel are ready for the revision process.
I can feel the look of 'what kind of an answer is that' but hear me out.
Terry Pratchett believes that some novels should never be rewritten, specifically those you abandon and come back to years later. There is some truth to that, but like anything in writing, it's not one hundred per cent true. I'd say it's probably about seventy-five per cent true.
So what's the key factor? Personal change.
I've decided this by looking at my own life and my own novels.
My first novel and its children have been abandoned completely. I wrote my first novel before my dad was diagnosed with cancer. (I finished it shortly before that.) Even from one year to the next, even before my dad died, my second novel in the trilogy was very different. I couldn't properly connect to Maria, my light hearted protaganist of the first novel. I couldn't write in her viewpoint. Just trying gave me a headache.
Then my dad died, and in the third book, it was even harder.
I've said many times I wish I could go back to that story. It was a beautiful story, it was original, but I can't. Why not? Because I've changed too much, become too jaded, to write in Maria's voice. I've lost my connection with the character and so I've lost my connection to the first book. The second two still have prospect, but without the first, they're just orphan children.
I wrote Moonshadow's Guardian a year later. It was the first book I ever wrote that wasn't connected to the first novel. Originally it was an entirely different story lifted from the adopt-a-plot boards on the Nanowrimo website. It morphed and then cut itself in half, creating an entirely new story. It is that story, in the character of Riana, that became the first novel I revised.
Throughout 2007 I edited Moonshadow's Guardian. In 2008 I almost got it published. I look back now and I'm glad I didn't.
Why? Because I've started revisions and it's easier than I ever thought revision could be.
It's almost a line edit, only I'm rewriting word for word. I've changed a lot, but it's made me better able to write a mature character like Riana. I've become a much better writer, but that hasn't distanced me from this story. I still love this world, these characters, this story. I'm excited to work with it again and I can already see the huge difference my editing has made-and I'm not even past the sixth chapter yet!
So what does that have to do with you?
Well, this experience has taught me something. Whether or not you can take a novel you wrote a long time ago and make it something amazing has less to do with time than you think, and more to do with changing life events. While my life has been hectic and many things have happened to me that changed my life, nothing has changed my life, my mental health, or my attitude as deeply as the loss of my dad.
I think I could rewrite every novel I've written since the day he died.
I don't think I could ever rewrite my first novel, or the novel I wrote while he was in the hospital. Maybe it's the pain of the memories, but I think it's because I lost the innocence essential to Maria's character when I lost my dad, and I can't connect to that part of human experience anymore. It's a loss to my writing and I hope someday I can write innocence again-but I know I will never be able to write Maria.
Are there any projects you'd love to rewrite but can't? What's your theory about why?
There are at least a thousand questions that can be asked about revision, and not one of them can be answered the same way for every person except maybe 'do I need to revise'. Like anything else in writing, it's complicated and there are as many answers as there are writers.
The question I would like to discuss today is the question of when to start revising your novel.
Of course I'm going to start with the ambiguous answer, which is, elegantly put, when you and your novel are ready for the revision process.
I can feel the look of 'what kind of an answer is that' but hear me out.
Terry Pratchett believes that some novels should never be rewritten, specifically those you abandon and come back to years later. There is some truth to that, but like anything in writing, it's not one hundred per cent true. I'd say it's probably about seventy-five per cent true.
So what's the key factor? Personal change.
I've decided this by looking at my own life and my own novels.
My first novel and its children have been abandoned completely. I wrote my first novel before my dad was diagnosed with cancer. (I finished it shortly before that.) Even from one year to the next, even before my dad died, my second novel in the trilogy was very different. I couldn't properly connect to Maria, my light hearted protaganist of the first novel. I couldn't write in her viewpoint. Just trying gave me a headache.
Then my dad died, and in the third book, it was even harder.
I've said many times I wish I could go back to that story. It was a beautiful story, it was original, but I can't. Why not? Because I've changed too much, become too jaded, to write in Maria's voice. I've lost my connection with the character and so I've lost my connection to the first book. The second two still have prospect, but without the first, they're just orphan children.
I wrote Moonshadow's Guardian a year later. It was the first book I ever wrote that wasn't connected to the first novel. Originally it was an entirely different story lifted from the adopt-a-plot boards on the Nanowrimo website. It morphed and then cut itself in half, creating an entirely new story. It is that story, in the character of Riana, that became the first novel I revised.
Throughout 2007 I edited Moonshadow's Guardian. In 2008 I almost got it published. I look back now and I'm glad I didn't.
Why? Because I've started revisions and it's easier than I ever thought revision could be.
It's almost a line edit, only I'm rewriting word for word. I've changed a lot, but it's made me better able to write a mature character like Riana. I've become a much better writer, but that hasn't distanced me from this story. I still love this world, these characters, this story. I'm excited to work with it again and I can already see the huge difference my editing has made-and I'm not even past the sixth chapter yet!
So what does that have to do with you?
Well, this experience has taught me something. Whether or not you can take a novel you wrote a long time ago and make it something amazing has less to do with time than you think, and more to do with changing life events. While my life has been hectic and many things have happened to me that changed my life, nothing has changed my life, my mental health, or my attitude as deeply as the loss of my dad.
I think I could rewrite every novel I've written since the day he died.
I don't think I could ever rewrite my first novel, or the novel I wrote while he was in the hospital. Maybe it's the pain of the memories, but I think it's because I lost the innocence essential to Maria's character when I lost my dad, and I can't connect to that part of human experience anymore. It's a loss to my writing and I hope someday I can write innocence again-but I know I will never be able to write Maria.
Are there any projects you'd love to rewrite but can't? What's your theory about why?
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Comment by RedParrot
I will answer the q but first, something I forgot to tell you in yesterday's post. There's a new SF show out (from UK) called "Being Human". About a vampire, a werewolf and a ghost (sounds like a "walk into a bar" joke ... but not, it's a show premise - which may be a lesson in premise-writing but there we are).
In any event ... I decided to give it a chance b/c of some mixed buzz regarding the show. I tuned in midway and shortly after idenfying who is which ... we cut to a kitchen scene ... wherein the Vampire is at the table eating cereal from a bowl. I nearly hurt myself laughing. Ah me ... Elgin would be *horrified*!!
With that, onto your qs ...
Are there any projects you'd love to rewrite but can't?
Erhm. No. But that's probably because I don't see anything I write as particularly viable beyond the first draft. I think I'm still trying to figure out how to write and what to write and muddling over concepts / developing ideas. It also helps significantly that I am not a writer by trade (and thus obliged to review my art and craft and progress).
I *would* like to finish a couple fan fics but - once one's love/obsession with the show fades or is replaced by another, one no longer really CARES enough to finish the piece. Yet this one kind of haunts me. I wrote in excess of 80,000 words ... got everyone returned from the wars. I'm about 2 chapters to the end but now ... meh ... I blame ScriptFrenzy entirely. It interrupted the whole flow.
And now that I have said all that - I was just thinking about prose fiction. I have two stage plays that I would like to tweak ... first to make them "workshopable" and then - dream of dreams - have the words come out of actual actors mouths to see how it would run.
What's your theory about why?
Regarding the plays ... why. Hmm. Random thoughts just sitting here thinking about it ...
1. I'm lazy
2. Editing feels like "going backwards"
3. I have other things to do
4. I have no idea how to get a play workshopped so why edit for an event that will likely not happen
5. It sounds exceedingly goofy for me to say, "yeah I'm editing my play so I can get it workshopped" because my real world is so far removed from the theatre world. Seriously. It would be laughable to say that me out here has something that is relevant to Them over there who probably have a kabillion of Them who are doing just the same thing with way more legitimate skills and means.
I'm not sure that makes any sense but there we are.
Selfish question on my part ... now that summer's done, are you going to keep going with the weekly prompt? I do not want to compromise your school work but have really enjoyed (and looked forward to) Tuesdays this entire summer. : )
Cheers!
RP
Comment by Dianna G
I Wish This Was 42
Fictional Worlds
The show sounds vaguely interesting, but TV these days astounds me with its stupidity... case in point is the vampire eating cereal. (Some of my vampires eat human food; but they would never go so far as CEREAL. I don't think cereal even exists in their world.)
For those of us who don't dream of publication, editing can be a waste-but it's also a learning experience. Every time I edit a piece I learn something about the process, and it's worth it, even though some things will never get published despite my editing.
Never discredit your dream of writing-whether it be a novel or a screenplay-because most people who make it in the writing business don't start out that way. It's harder when you write scripts from what I understand but that doesn't mean it's not worth chasing.
How does editing feel like going backwards?
Prompts will continue but there is going to be a major schedule upheaval for the school year, in which I hope to post three times a week instead of the two that I have been. There will be a post with more details on that probably on Monday.
~Dianna
Comment by RedParrot
Well I'm well chuffed you will be posting 3 times a week. : ) Here's hoping there's more questions and prompts and whatnot for those of us who need a reliable source for inspiration. : )
Regarding going backwards ... this is sort of hard to explain. It's like if I've written it, then it's written and done. The story is out of my system. Then I can move on. If I go back and edit, it's like I go backwards in time ... like I am visiting myself in the past. Or that I sort of already know this story. Or worse - I need to change the story - which generates the tension of a problem to solve (my real job is one of problem-sovling) which I take very seriously (and have a brain that won't let me get away with just abandoning problems). So ... it's sort of like opening old wounds?
I don't know ... going backwards is the best way I have to explain it.
Maybe the stuff just has to be sufficiently cold? I don't know ...
Re the scripts ... there is a woman I know of (via work and SFrenzy) who chairs a script-working-out session. I try a lot to forget she exists. I have two plays ... the first is the better of the two ... or not ... oh bother ...
Hope you have a long weekend of pure awesomeness! I am going to sew batman costumes for two little boys who have low expectations and big brown eyes ... : )
Cheers!
RP
Comment by Dianna G
I Wish This Was 42
Fictional Worlds
It makes sense in a way, but once you've edited, you've taken three steps forward for every step you took back. Getting to the end of a revision is a beautiful feeling.
Maybe you should remember that she exists. You don't have to, but I think people should always be trying new things, new areas of life. Explore what there is in this world because there's a lot, and we're blessed to be able to access almost anything in this world because we're Canadian and not on the streets.
I'm sure I'll have a great weekend... have fun with those costumes. I can't sew, that's for damn sure
~Dianna