You have to hang a little loose.
Lawrence Block, in his book Spider, Spin Me a Web: A Handbook for Fiction Writers, says that his best writing inevitably comes when he lets it flow without overthinking. Wise words.
You keep writing because it's the only way to finish the book. And remember Tracy's big acting secret: Be yourself and listen. Don't write for the critics.
The Boys in the Basement
Stephen King is a skilled novelist who just may break out one of these days. In his book On Writing, he talks about the boys in the basement, his metaphor for the subconscious writer's mind. When you write, and when you revise, you ought to get the boys working.
If you're a woman and don't like the idea of boys in your basement, feel free to come up with your own metaphor.
The trick is to get the subconscious on the job ...
The Dream Game
Why not work while you sleep? The boys don't have to sleep, so keep them busy while you're in dreamland.
Here's a wonderful process that will yield some pleasant results. You've been working on your manuscript. You've come across some problems, questions—basic things that just need changing. In other words, some problems that need to be solved.
Tackle them this way: On a pad of paper, just before you go to bed, write down your problem as a question. Be specific:
• How can I get Thelma out of the building in a more plausible way?
• What can John do that shows his courage?
• How can I make the doorman a more interesting minor character?
And so on. I recommend you write it down. For some reason, the physical act of writing the problem sends it more clearly to the basement.
Do this as close as possible to your head hitting the pillow. In the morning, before you do anything else (unless it's that first cup of coffee), sit down with a fresh piece of paper and write down as many things as you can. Most of the time you'll have a thought that has bubbled up to the top.
But don't limit yourself. Make a list of possible answers, and push yourself in this great moment before your day begins.
Procrastination
On New Year's Day I made a resolution to procrastinate more, starting in February. Procrastination is something I wallow in before I start revising. Not everyone has that problem, but if you do, let me suggest a couple of things that have helped me.
1] Break your tasks down into distinct sections, and then write them down. Working from an organized, written list helps you conceive of the rewrite as a more manageable project. You can start with general categories like:
• read through
• character fixes
• plot points
• polish
Once you get into the rewrite, more specific items will present themselves. So, under "character fixes" you might have "Deepen Jenny" or "Make minor characters more colorful."
2] Assign time estimates to your tasks. These are flexible, but they work as "mini-deadlines" to keep you moving forward. For instance, you might decide it will take you four hours to go through your minor characters and see how you can spice them up.
3] Prioritize your tasks. Put the most important things first on your list. You'll want to deal with major plot problems before you start polishing dialogue.
4] Think of one task at a time. Don't look at the mountaintop. Look at the path in front of you. When you get around that bend, look at the next few steps. When you're working, keep thoughts of the whole project out of your mind.
5] Start your rewrite session by doing the hardest things first. You'll be able to focus your best efforts on the more unpleasant tasks, feel good about getting them out of the way, and move on with confidence.
6] Swiss cheese it. If you have some discretionary time but don't think you're up to a full rewrite session, take a bite out of the project by Swiss cheesing it. Put one little hole in the overall by taking on a minor problem.
Maybe it's that dialogue exchange at the end of chapter six. Take fifteen minutes and see what you can do with it. Maybe while the soup's heating up. Or if you're standing in a long line at Ticketmaster, take out a note card and write a list of possible fixes for Jenny. Set the boys in the basement to work.
Get creative the Swiss cheese way.
Treat it as a job—not a mystical calling. Then you'll get up every morning and go "to work" instead of waiting for the muse to attend you.
—Jean Brody
The Writer in the Gray Fannel Suit Trick
Pretend you're at a job with a grumpy boss. John D. MacDonald, one of the best and most prolific novelists of the 1950s and 1960s, produced a massive amount of work doing this. For him, writing was a job. He had to put food on the table. So he worked on an eight-to-five schedule with one hour for lunch. At five, he knocked off for the day and had a martini, just like the man in the gray flannel suit.
When I was faced with two deadlines converging at about the same time, I had no choice but to become a working stiff. I imagined I was supposed to show up at work at eight and leave at five, with an hour lunch break. I really did this. I got to my office a little before eight. I conjured up a supervisor, and if it was a few minutes past eight, his look would be a little impatient.
I worked an hour, took a five-minute rest break, worked another hour, and so on. I took lunch, then got back to work at 1 p.m.
In this way I was able to meet my deadlines. When you're unpublished or looking to be published, you have to impose your own deadlines. This is sometimes hard for creative types, who like to lie about in the fields of the imagination and let inspiration fly in, like a bluebird.
You may write this way, but don't rewrite this way. Revision is bare-knuckles time. Time to get tough with yourself.
It's a good thing, too. Imposing a deadline focuses your mind, makes you a little anxious. Gives you some butterflies in the tummy. Your job now is to make them fly in formation. Your mind will be forced to dig deep and come up with answers. Let it.
If you really want to cook, set up a spreadsheet that keeps track of the time you spend working and aim to eliminate wasted time.
Work in fifty-five-minute chunks if you can, and count that as one hour. When something happens to interrupt you, make a note of it. When it's your fault, as in a quick game of Internet backgammon, label the cell in red to show alarm.
You'll start to feel good about revision and your discipline as a writer.
Performance Review
Write up a performance review of yourself, as if you were your own supervisor. What are the problem areas? What are the places you could improve? What are the action items you are given?
Read the review and stew about it. Confront yourself and say it's unfair. Then be told that if you want to resign and not be the best writer you can be, fine, you're free to go. Accept the review and try to put it into practice. Do all this in the privacy of your own office.
[ BEFORE YOU REVISE ]
Robert Heinlein had two rules for writers:
1] You must write.
2] You must finish what you write.
Before you can revise your novel you've got to have ... your novel. So finish it.
With a few revision principles in mind. Very few, because the object of the first draft is to get it done. Only then will you take a long pause to get it right.
REVISE AS YOU WRITE?
I don't recommend that you do major revision during the writing of your first draft. The temptation to stop and make major changes is constant, and it can drive you bats. And most of the time these changes aren't the best thing for the story that's trying to bubble up from your writer's mind.
You only truly get to know your novel when you've finished it. So consider your first draft an exploration into what's really happening in your story. Some of your best stuff will come into focus later as you look back at what you've written.
1] Revise Your Previous Pages
Look at what you wrote the day before (or during your last writing stint
), and do a quick edit. This practice puts you back into the flow of your story and gets you ready to write the new material.
I like to print out a hard copy of pages and mark them up. Of course, you can do all this on the computer screen. I just find that the act of reading physical pages more closely mimics what a reader will be doing, and I catch more things this way.
Mostly I'm editing for style. The way the sentences flow. I want to make sure what I wanted to convey has actually happened on the page. If a
major plot or character problem emerges, or I get an idea for something to add, I just make a note of it and get to my day's writing quota.
Write as fast as you comfortably can on your first draft.
I edit as I go and I don't find myself making sweeping
changes. So for me, there's not a first anything, just an
only. When I'm done with the last page I am still working
on the same Word document I started out with. I reread
the previous day's work each day before beginning the
next chapter or scene and I fix anything that needs fixing. If I do make a plot or characterization change midway through, I go back and fix anything written earlier that won't jive with the changes I've made.
—Susan Meissner
2] Try the 20,000-Word Step Back
Whether you're an NOP (No Outline Person) or an OP (Outline Person), the 20,000-word step back can be a tremendous tool.
After 20,000 words you stop, take a day off, then read what you have. By this time your story engine should be running. You've done enough of the novel to know pretty much what it's about. You then take some time to make sure you like the characters and the direction.
If you don't, make some changes now.
This is a good point to make your lead characters richer by adding background (whether you include this for the readers or not), behaviors, quirks, strengths, flaws, and tags (speech, dress, etc.).
You can also make a decision about the tone and feel of your novel. It may want to take on a different emphasis than what you had planned. A better novel may be asking to be released.
Here's what I mean.
I've been working on a novel with a premise I liked: A lawyer discovers his brother, whom he thought to be dead, is alive. They get together and discover how different their paths have been. Gradually, my lead character uncovers disquieting secrets about his brother and finds himself in danger.
I wrote the first 20,000 words with a plan in mind, to get the characters to a certain point and then begin a series of tense chases.
When I did my step back, I felt there was something missing from the book. It wasn't that I couldn't come up with suspenseful material; no problem there. But the feeling that I hadn't quite connected with the book persisted.
During this step-back period of a week or so, I thought about the book and wrote a free association letter to myself each day (see pre-revision tip #3 listed below).
One day I woke up knowing what was wrong. The book was trying tell me to get more deeply into my lead character's feelings about his brother and his childhood guilt over his loss. There would still be plenty of suspense, but it needed to pad up in soft socks, not steel-toed boots.
When I went back to the first draft, I felt the material and I were connected in a much better, fuller way. That's the value of the step back. Now jump back in and finish your novel. Then use this book to revise it, polish it, and send it in.
3} Keep a Journal
The free-form journal is a great way to record notes for yourself as you go. Often, these notes will become fodder for your revision.
Remember, that first draft is also an act of discovery. Don't try to get it perfect, the first go-around. Let it breathe. Then you'll begin the process of cutting out all that isn't your novel and adding more novel to it if you have to.
Let the first version go as long as it has to. —Gini Kopecky
4] Take Advantage of All Your Tools
Writers today have a lot more tools available to them than ever before. It's not just blue pencils anymore.
Here are just a few that you can fine-tune for yourself.
Word Comments
Use the Comments feature in Word. When doing your first draft, you can use these to leave yourself notes about plot points that need to be filled in, research questions you have to answer, and anything else that comes to mind.
When you're ready to revise, you can refer to the Comments alone, or print them out.
Running Outline
As you write your first draft, keep a running summary—a running outline—of your story.
I suggest you copy and paste your first couple of paragraphs from each chapter, and the last couple.
Then put a summary statement of the action at the top of each, in all caps. Let's say your chapter begins like this:
CHAPTER ONE
Captain Lois Enloe walked through the front door of The Retreat at exactly eight-twenty-seven. This, according to her watch, was precisely seven minutes before the bomb would explode. Then they would all know. They'd all know for sure.
And ends like this:
Somebody tapped her on the shoulder. She turned.
It was the last man she wanted to see.
Your running outline entry might look like this:
l] LOIS ENTERS THE BAR BEFORE THE BOMB EXPLODES. SHE ENJOYS THE EXPLOSION AND ENSUING CONFUSION, BUT SHE'S DISCOVERED.
Captain Lois Enloe walked through the front door of The Retreat at exactly eight-twenty-seven. This, according to her watch, was precisely seven minutes before the bomb would explode. Then they would all know. They'd all know for sure. Somebody tapped her on the shoulder. She turned.
It was the last man she wanted to see.
It only takes a minute or two to do this. At the end of the first draft you'll have a complete outline of your story as written.
Spreadsheets or Tables
Some writers, almost always outline people, like to put their outlines in a spreadsheet or table. Then, using color-coding and other markers, they can see the outline of their story, the characters involved, and a summary of the action, at a glance.
Such a spreadsheet or table might look like this:
Paper
Yes, you're still allowed to use paper. You can actually write things down with implements like pens and pencils and crayons.
I know writers who like to lay out their stories on long rolls of butcher paper. They use different colored sticky notes and pens and make up a huge map. Then they roll this up and carry it around. (A couple of my writer friends actually use a map-carrying tube, with strap and all. Hey, whatever works, works.)
Critique Groups
Many writers have benefited from critique groups, reader networks, and paid critiques.
Almost as many writers have had negative experiences with the same. Are any of these for you?
Not necessarily. Most published novelists have gotten along just fine with a single editor. Thomas Wolfe had Maxwell Perkins. Ayn Rand had Bennett Cerf (who somehow survived).
But the days of the nurturing author/editor relationship are pretty much over. These days, a writer must look out for the quality of the manuscript with more responsibility.
So here are some guidelines for you to help you benefit from the input of others on your book.
The benefits of a small, dedicated group of writers are several. Novelist Jack Cavanaugh says:
Not until I joined a critique group did I begin writing for publication. The monthly meetings gave me a deadline, exposure to critique (which made me try harder to prove them wrong), and put me in contact with people who shared a common goal as well as information about publishers' guidelines and needs. If it had not been for the critique group I may never have started writing seriously.
The experience wasn't the same for Robin Lee Hatcher. "I participated in a critique group around books ten and eleven. It was a horrid experience for me. I don't do well writing by committee, and s
ince I am an intuitive writer, I work best without other input during the creative process. With rare exceptions, my editor is the first person who sees the book. Occasionally I will ask a trusted writer friend to read a scene or a chapter if I'm struggling with something, just to make sure I'm conveying what I hope to convey."
If you need that extra push, especially early in your career, a critique group can help. But make sure the following factors apply:
• Look for people you have a rapport with. Previous relationships help.
• Keep the group small. Four to seven, give or take.
• Give as much as you get. Make sure you give adequate time to everyone else.
• Establish realistic deadlines and stick to them.
• Make sure the people in the group understand the genre you're writing in.
• Build trust. Check egos at the door.
• Be aware of the envy question. It happens. If someone's writing takes off, it's going to cause some strain. Best to talk about this up front.
Any major drawbacks?
• Sometimes you're crazy busy and you need to squeeze more into your already crammed schedule.
[ THE FIRST READ-THROUGH ]
Bobby Knight, one of college basketball's greatest (and most volatile) coaches, once said, "Practice doesn't make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect."
Quite true. If you practice the wrong things, you're not going to be a better player or team.
So the old saw Writing is rewriting! needs a little tweak. Good writing is rewriting with know-how.
That's what this book is for: to give you both the tools and the strategies for approaching every aspect of revision.
And the first big moment is when you have a completed manuscript. This is a crucial time, fraught with peril. Okay, perhaps peril is a bit much, but fraught is certainly applicable. What you must avoid is any temptation to stop and do wholesale revisions before you have read the entire manuscript once.
Think of this process as Google Earth. You want to get a complete overview of your "earth." Your novel. Your story as a whole. You can spin the earth a little here and there to get a better view, but stay up top. You'll tag a few places to visit later, to zoom in on. That'll be the nuts and bolts of revision.
Revision And Self-Editing Page 21