rewriting Archives - Annie Bellet

Posts Tagged ‘rewriting’

The First Cuts

There’s an anecdotal story about Michelangelo’s David which goes something like the artist spent 15 months just staring at the marble before he ever cut into it.

I feel that way about this novel. An awful lot of staring is going on and not so much is happening with the cutting (writing). It’s the damn plot. I’ve constructed it in a way that for the next 4-5 chapters the whole rest of the book is set up. This is the climb towards the crest of the rollercoaster. And if I go off the track now, the whole thing will fail. I want to get this right. Which means I’ve been stabbing at the same couple paragraphs for the last week and a half.

To continue the stream of unrelated and piss-poor metaphors: this is probably the writing equivalent to opening the oven door every two minutes to check on the cookies. I know I need to stop obsessing and apply word to page. Let the whole thing sort itself out later. If I break it, I break it. That’s what editing is for, right?

The only problem is that once again I’m faced with the paralyzing fear that I’ll break this draft as badly as the first one and have to rewrite the novel in its entirety again. And again. I deeply respect and admire authors who are able to run through five or six or more completely different drafts of the same novel. I really do. I’m just not sure I have the fortitude to be one of them. We all have our own styles, our own ways of writing and working. I don’t think I’m a gazillion draft writer. Or maybe I am and I haven’t accepted my fate. Who knows?

I think I’m going to just try to press on. If the novel ends up broken in a way that small scene rewrites and repairs won’t solve I think I’ll be done with this book for a while. I’ll stick it in the proverbial drawer and move on to the next novel. Lessons learned. I can’t take another rewrite, this one is hard enough. Hopefully my future first drafts won’t be quite as broken as this one was. I have a feeling writing the thing on a bet in 19 days pretty much doomed me there.

I also think my next project will be fantasy. Probably the Welsh fairytale novel. It will require minimal research and have nothing to do with science. Making the world believable and constructing the pseudo-science is one of the things slowing my current novel project down a great deal. The next novel that requires research will definitely get better research done before I write it.

Of course, the next novel that will take lots of research will likely be my thesis project. I’m hoping I can do the War Witches idea as my thesis. That novel is slowly percolating and building in my mind and would be perfect for a MA thesis. Lots of research, lots of history, lots of texture, and plenty of Important Themes to explore.

All right. Back to hacking up the stone. Which really feels a lot like trying to gnaw the David out of titanium. With my teeth.

Tasty.

Thoughts on Rewriting

I’m one chapter into the rewrite of my first novel. I’m glad I decided to start anew rather than continue trying to fix what came before. I doubt I’ll use much of the old material beyond the plot, characters, and some ideas. There are particular challenges, however. In rewriting I’m essentially constructing another novel from scratch. This means I have to do most of the work over again. It would be very easy to overwhelm myself with the concept of “Too Much Work.”

To combat this, I’ve decided on the major large changes and then have narrowed my focus. I outlined with the major changes. For this rewrite, however, I’m mainly working on getting the characters motivated. Looking at the first draft I don’t really feel connected to anyone in the novel. I feel like I could, maybe, like a couple of the characters, but they aren’t quite there yet for me. They feel flat. This is not acceptable. I read novels 70-80% for the people in them. I want to write novels that have the same draw.

To do this, I’m plunging in and going (perhaps) a bit overboard. I’ve done a lot of hand written background brainstorming for everyone. I’ve made RPG character profiles for a couple of them. I’ve given them disorders, quirks, interests. Essentially, I’ve thrown the kitchen sink of character building at my people. I was in the bath when I realized that I needed to do this. Before a day or two ago, they weren’t talking to me. I couldn’t really see the characters as more than wooden dolls in a nice set I’d created. I don’t want to play with dolls (dolls are creepy. Seriously creepy).

With this focus, now I can continue the rewrite. Plot and setting can be tweaked. If I can manage a few compelling, interesting, dare I say memorable characters, the rest can follow. The rest will follow.

Here’s a list of the changes between drafts one and two. (In no particular order).

The Dude is now named Ryg. He’s also agoraphobic and OCD.

Sif talks less. In fact, she pretty much only talks to Hex. She’s also far more psychotic and less moral than before.

Sif and Hex are already in a relationship.

Hex is not the jealous type anymore. He’s now the type to hide his insecurities with sarcasm. He’s also more accepting of Sif and her issues.

Kadin is a more major character who contributes to a twist.

The setting is quite a bit different. There are no cars now, just small electric vehicles and personal transportation. Stuff is transported on the electric rail system under the city or via carts hooked to the personal vehicles. I’ve refined and altered the food system as well as government. The city only has one main street now, the whole thing is a spiral. The districts are more defined (and in fact can be closed off from each other if necessary). The setting is much more complex, but also I hope more unique and interesting. Since I’m focusing on character, not setting as much, I will definitely have to flesh some things out later I think. That’s what the next bit of editing is for.

The plot is essentially the same, but with some more challenges and complexities tossed in. I’ve removed the secret society and am working on making everyone motivated due to character desires rather than using the GM Stick.

On another note: sometimes I think I definitely bit off more than I really should have for this first novel. I’m writing what boils down to a Political Cyberpunk Adventure/Thriller with medical and fantastical elements. Couldn’t I have just started out with a nice straightforward quest fantasy or something? It feels like learning to walk by running a marathon.

Accepting the Reality of Dangerous

It’s time. Time to accept that no matter how many iron-on patches and crazyglue fixes I try with my first novel, it’s over. This edit isn’t happening. Yeah, I’m halfway through. Sure, I’ve hit the 200 page mark. Woohoo.

It sucks. End of story. My ears bleed when I read the text aloud. The writing barely feels like it’s mine. I don’t really care about the story, the characters are flat and noncommittal, the action without actual peril, the setting half-assed. I can fix all these things. But not if I’m stuck in the framework of the original novel. It is time not to revise, but to rewrite.

I’m making a list right now. On the list go all the things I like about the original text. These are things I’ll keep. I might end up with a wholly different novel than I had before. I don’t know. I’m going to keep the basics of the plot, the setting, and most of the characters. I can rebuild it, better, faster, stronger.

If I can’t write a whole new novel, then I don’t belong writing novels. This is going to be a lot more work than ironing on patches and debugging the original. I think I’ll be lucky if I’m done by July (my tentative goal). I want the novel to feel like I wrote it though. I want to write characters I’m interested in, and I want the time to find their voices, to weave their cares and conflicts into the story.

It also means that my other two novels are going on the back burner. I think this is good. They can percolate in my head for a while longer.