Elizabeth Drakes's Site

Fantasy Romance

revisions

Writer’s Life: When You Can’t Shut Your Brain Off

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One of the things about being a writer that some people often overlook is how much time goes into revisions.

For me, I spend less than 25% of my writing time on the first draft. It’s probably closer to 10%.

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I try to remember this.

Part of it is because I am a pantser. That means I do not do extensive plotting before I start writing. I do spend a lot of time thinking about my characters, their relationship, and their romance. But the actual progression of the story happens as I write. My characters tell it to me, and if I try to be an author-god, it gets bad quickly.

Because I am a pantser, I spend a lot of time revising. I have to go through and make sure the plot works. That characters are consistent throughout. That what happens in act three has the groundwork laid in act one.

Yes, this is a lot of work. But even though I tried again last year to plot out a novel, I made it less than ten thousand words in and was done. The story died. I did write three other first drafts during the year though. Without an outline. *sigh*

Yeah, I don’t like how my brain works either. But I have learned to accept it.

migraine
Well, mostly.

But this does make it difficult to sit back and simply enjoy other works of fiction. Whether an RPG, a movie, or a novel, that editor brain doesn’t seem to shut up.

Interestingly, I have different levels of editor brain depending on the medium.

For example, with video games, I am far more lenient. Yeah, the story is poorly written, the characters inconsistent, and the plot is hanging by a thread, but a lot of the game is the battle mechanics. If it’s a strategy game with cool characters, even inconsistent characters, I am pretty forgiving.

For books and movies, though, I am more merciless.

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Truth.

For example, Frozen II. if you have not watched it and are planning to, and don’t want spoilers, don’t read ahead. But I figure it’s out on DVD now, so it’s safe to talk about.

Yes, Frozen II was a visual spectacle. I give it that. The animation was amazing. The songs are still being sung in my house *grumble*. But the plot? The characters? *shakes head*

  • I really struggled with Elsa simply “freeing” the unknown magic simply because it called to her and might be as confused about its identity and where it belonged as she was. Throughout the story, she is a cautious character very concerned with ruling her people well.
  • Later, we have the trolls tell Anna to protect Elsa from the magic. It is alluring but dangerous. However, then the crux of the story is Elsa literally pushing Anna away and embracing this same magic?
  • Elsa literally dies at one point in the movie, and is magically resurrected. Not sure how…They did establish Olaf coming back with the water has memory, but that doesn’t explain Elsa

All in, while my family loved the movie, I had to suspend a lot of disbelief. Too much.

I am even worse with books because then there are no pretty visuals to distract me.

I try hard to turn off my brain and enjoy entertainment, but I think this difficulty is just what it’s like for a writer sometimes.

However, it also means when something is well, really well, you get that, too.

And then you try to figure out how they did it so you can do it, too.

 

 

Revisions, Revisions, Revisions

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I am swimming in revisions right now.

I received the latest draft of Knight of Valor back, and it looked like a field of poppies with the amount of red comments on it.

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Amount right.

Sad, really, for an eighteenth draft, though most of the comments revolve around letting the hero’s personality shine through and maybe showing a bit more of the broken side of his character.

He, of course, wants no part of that. He wants to be the strong silent type that you can rely on. Which he is, but he’s also been through hell and back and survived. He’s not the naïve and idealistic youth he once was. And that’s okay. Both he and I need to be more comfortable letting some of those broken pieces show through, at least for the reader.

So, yeah, this has been an exhausting rewrite.

But, I will say, the story is better for it. I feel like the changes I am making help better convey Sir Marcus’s character and explain why he is my favorite of all the heroes I have written to date.

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Or the eighteenth

It will probably take me at least the rest of the month, maybe longer, to finish the rewrite. Then, I need to walk away for at least two weeks.

Four would be better so that I can look at the manuscript with fresh eyes.

Okay, all right, sort of fresh eyes. After nineteen revisions, I’m not sure I’ll ever have truly fresh eyes for this piece again.

I have updated my goals in Wunderlist to track the extra revisions I need to put in.

WunderlistMar2019
Not exactly what I wanted to show you, but it’s real.

Yeah.

It’s basically two more months’ worth of work.

And yes, my OCD would really like to call February finished, except it isn’t. There were things in that month to accomplish to launch Knight of Valor in April. Just as there are things in March I was supposed to do to get ready for a book launch as well.

But, you can see if you add the progress of February, March and April together, I am a little father ahead than where I had planned to be this time in mid-March.

I am not sure I can do the extra things needed for Knight of Valor and stay on track with my other writing goals this year. Plus, I still don’t know what else will throw me off schedule.

And that’s okay.

I am making progress. I can see that.

There may be unforeseen things along the journey, but I am still traveling it.

66% Done

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I cleared 40,000 words on my latest WIP.

celebrate

And yes, this is approximately 66% for me. As a romance writer, I like my works to come in around 70-80k words. I write a very bare bone first draft, so I leave myself space to go back and add in more during revisions. Things like scents and sounds to help the reader feel closer to the action. More description…or description at all.

My beta reader has nailed me for the number of sensory deprivation rooms I have in my early drafts. I’m much better about finding it and correcting it myself now, but that still means more words.

So, why am I celebrating the 66% mark? Am I that desperate for recognition? Maybe a little, but that’s not the point.

Why is the 66% mark important to me? Because at this point, I’ve conquered the dreaded middle.

I’m a pantser when I write. Yes, I’ve tried outlines.

outlining

Outlines simply don’t work for me. I’ve given up trying for the moment, and I’ve given myself over to letting the characters show me what’s going to happen.

I know where the story starts. I know how it ends. What I don’t know is the middle. How are they going to get there? It’s this middle part that teaches me a lot about the characters, what deeper internal motivators they have, their hopes, fears, etc.

The beginning, that’s really their face to the world. Their mask. To get them to reveal more, I have to throw some things at them. See how they react.

By the end of the story, well, you know me. There is going to be a happily-ever-after (HEA). That’s a given.

Sometimes, getting the characters to come clean in the middle is really hard. Either they have a lot to hide, or I am trying to author-plot and not let things evolve on their own. Me not stepping back and giving the characters agency is usually the issue, but sometimes the obstacles I throw at them are not significant to get them to come clean on their real internal struggles.

Does this mean a lot of revision later? You betcha.

firstdraft

Now that you know the characters better, you have to push all you’ve learned back to the beginning of the story. Let who they are peek around the corners of who they want you to believe they are. It requires changes to the beginning, and as I rewrite and delve deeper, it frequently requires a change in the ending as well. And lots more tinkering throughout.

But that’s revision. That’s later. Right now, it’s all about getting the electrons on the screen in a pattern that resembles words. Most of which will change later.

But if I can get through the middle, I have a really good shot of finishing the book. The end usually writes faster than any other part as we barrel towards the climactic resolution and our happily-ever-after.

Of course, I will probably have to rewrite the ending. The one novel I’ve polished and am querying had four different endings before I was happy.

Still, here’s hoping I can get that last 20,000 words and have another first draft waiting to be revised.

No Whining

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I fuss (okay, maybe yell) at my oldest child to stop whining. Every day. Multiple times a day.

So, I don’t want to devolve into whining myself even if it’s been a rough few weeks.

 

My little one had pneumonia. We got through it.

Had some career stuff really stressing me out. I got through it

My daycare closed due to a power outage. We coped.

My older child woke up vomiting, and I lost a whole afternoon I had planned to spend writing, cleaning up and taking care of her. We managed.

 

Yes, it’s taken me longer than I had wanted to get through this revision of Knight of Valor. I didn’t really get the “sit down and read it all the way through without interruption” experience I wanted. And I won’t have time for that until  the kids are in college. I’ll make do.

The revisions are done. The read through is done. I have sent it off for a final review to make sure I didn’t break anything as I was took the characters out of the blank rooms I’d put them in and worked to bring their world to life for the reader.

I will get through the query letter and synopsis sometime in the next week. Then, I will figure how to work the Writer’s Digest electronic subscription I have to send it off for its first rejection.

I will get this story submitted. Not sure when. Not exactly on my timeline, but it will get done.

As I am tidying up Knight of Valor for submission, I need to keep my writing skills sharp. I feel like I have come a long way in the last 15 months in terms of both quality and quantity. I finished the rough draft of The Devil’s Due, and it needs a strong first edit that usually involves a huge chunk of fresh writing and rewriting. I have been thinking about this second manuscript more, considering additional detail I should add.

I have a very long car trip in my future to see extended family (with 2 small children. Joy!). Perhaps the car ride will be quiet enough I can do some thinking, maybe even some writing on the laptop. We’ll see.

I am not giving up. I am not backing down. But sometimes there are a few unexpected pit stops on the journey.

Losing the Magic

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Revision is sucking some (or all) of the magic out of writing.

Writing isn’t all unicorns and rainbows, but there is something magical about bringing characters to life and seeing them through their trials.

Revisions are necessary, and I am the first to admit that I need revisions. Lots of them. I rely on them to take my work from words thrown on the page to something (hopefully) better and understandable by brains other than mine. Whether I am revamping character arcs, removing unnecessary that’s, or trying to show rather than tell, there is something about the mechanics that eats the story.

I’ve heard other authors say the same thing, sometimes a bit derisively toward new authors. And no, I don’t think writing is meant to be rainbows, sparkles, and fairy feathers. But how much it loses was brought home to me when I came across a piece of my old, badly written work. I didn’t remember much about the story when the Word file lit up my screen. Checking the date on it, I last saved it eight years ago.

Not even sure why I started reading it, but I did, and I was hooked. I wanted to see what happened. I learned to love these old and forgotten characters all over again. I wanted to see them succeed even through the grammar mistakes, typos, and some areas written so badly I cringed and skimmed through them.

I must have struggled with the ending eight years ago as there were four different ones (labeled as such). The last one I settled on was by far the best. Glad I didn’t stop with the crummy first one.

I hope I feel that same elation, that same need to know what happens, (although I hope I’m not cringing at sections) about the current story I’m working on when I go back and read it with fresh eyes. I have been so lost in polishing it I’ve started to wonder if the story itself is worth telling. Will anyone care what happens to the protagonists? Do I care anymore?

I can’t answer for others, but for me, the answer is yes, I do care about them. I’ve just lost the forest in the, well, not even the trees. More like the branches and leaves.

It also gives me a little hope. My older work may not be very good (and this was clearly a rough draft as it doesn’t look like it was even spell checked), but I cared about the characters. I slogged through a lot of stuff that needs work because I wanted to see what happened.  I even stayed up late one night because I wanted to get to the end and know how things worked out for them. I loved them and I had to know how their story ended. (I was pretty certain it was going to be a happy ending because I know me and I wrote it).

Magic returned.