Revision Whirlpool

My head is a-swirling and a-whirling with ideas for revision.

The more I learn about writing, and in particular, plot, the more I want to fix old stories gone wrong.

In looking over my notes and suggested tricks for revision, I re-discovered this simple but effective way of checking plot and logic. Since ideally a story is full of cause and effect, action and reaction – start with explaining the last event…

This happened BECAUSE  __________

Then work your way back to the beginning following the same pattern of explanation.

Pretty quickly you’ll see holes and random plop-ins of action… the places where something happened because you (the author) needed something to happen. Does it make sense? Is there another (better reason) that happened? How about those characters of yours – could they make things happen? What do they want now?

Sarah Wones Tomp

WRITING ON THE SIDEWALK

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Revising What I Can

Less than three weeks until the girl child graduates from high school.

It’s hard not to feel like I’m running out of time with her. Hard not to look back and think of things I wish I’d handled differently. Starting way back to when she started kindergarten. She was one of the youngest kids in the class – and only four years old. She was bright, and determined to do anything her older brother was doing. She did well – bright and determined goes a long way. But… if I hadn’t sent her then, she’d still have another year of high school. I’d still have another year of her at home.

Ugh, she says.

No matter. We don’t get to revise life the same way we revise our writing. And really, I don’t know that I would, even if I had the chance. Too many ripples into unknowns. Everything would be different. What’s better, what’s worse? Do we end up with the same destiny no matter how we get there?

But with revision in mind…

I am finding I simply can not rush the process. I think I have to walk my way through revision. I work on a chapter, then walk and think of what I missed and what I still need to do – and/or, depending on the walk – look ahead. Then work again, walk again. Repeat.

I am loving Cheryl Klein’s “Twenty-five Revision Techniques” in her book, Second Sight, but so far most of them are theoretical for me. I’m not quite ready. I’m still in the work big stage – still trying to get the plot right. Trying to follow all of those ripples each revision sets off.

But, looking ahead to fine tuning, one trick/technique I’m intrigued with using is a word frequency counter. Here you can paste your text and receive a breakdown of the number of times a word is used. Be sure to look for those crutches and fallback words.

Although I’m looking back at my story, I’m also looking ahead to the girl’s bright future.

Sarah Wones Tomp

WRITING ON THE SIDEWALK

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Dark Night of the Revision

I’ve been using Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat beat sheet to plot my WIP.

Number 12 of 15 beats is the “Dark Night of the Soul” moment.

This is “the darkness before the dawn. It is the point, as the name suggests, that is the darkness right before the dawn. It is the point before the hero reaches way, deep down and pulls out that last, best idea that will save himself and everyone around him. But at that moment, that idea is nowhere in sight.”

-Save the Cat by Blake Snyder)

I always seem to have that moment – or moments – in writing also. That moment when I don’t know what the heck to write next. The moment when all doubt bubbles up and makes everything seem trivial and pointless and just… bad.

But Blake knows this. His suggestions include having a nice meal, getting a good sleep and letting your brain work over night. He also says, “If you really take the time and push yourself, surround yourself with a writers group who will tell you the truth, then your head might explode for a day or two but in the long run your story will work.”

This happened to me last night. Yay! This week I’ve been working on revising a scene. I knew it wasn’t working, but I didn’t know why. It’s a big moment that takes my character from one place to another very different one. The shift is crucial to the rest of the plot. It felt like the right things were happening and in the right place. There was action. Important dialogue.

But…

Blah.

Frustration hit. Despair.

But then this morning I woke up and realized what was wrong – the WHY. I’d forgotten about my character’s deepest desire. THAT was really why she acted the way she did.

Joy! Even if it’s a dark moment for her, I get to have a moment of yay.

For those of you in the midst of head explosions, here are some of the ways that Blake Snyder (in Save the Cat Strikes Back) says fear, hesitancy, lack of confidence – and faith – may bog down your plot:

• Spidering: When a writer doesn’t stick to the premise. All sorts of distracting extra stories take hold – making the story expand sideways, instead of moving forward.
• Half-stepping: The story moves forward with small and insignificant steps. Your hero is tip-toeing when he/she should be running and leaping.
• Blurry Beats: The moments are there, but so quiet, so soft, so indefinite, we can’t see them. The character slips into Act Two.

Wishing you head explosions followed by joy,

Sarah Wones Tomp

WRITING ON THE SIDEWALK

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Final Thoughts on Revision

I want to close out this week with a few more thoughts on revision. Author Darcy Pattison uses a method called the “Shrunken Manuscript.” This process involves removing the white spaces and page breaks in your story, then using a marker highlighting the strongest chapters. For full instructions please select this link.  This more visual form of revision helps you to locate areas that drag in the manuscript. I think it would be interesting to try.

For more interesting and unusual tips for revision check out Darcy’s book: “Novel Metamorphosis: Uncommon Ways to Revise” (Mim’s House, 2008).

If you want to look at “revision” from a little different perspective, Boston’s Artists for Humanity have an apprentice program that is housed in an award-winning “green” building that inspired the teenagers to create a line of green furniture. After months of research and development, the teen-artists produced ReVision, a line of furniture that incorporates magazines and junk mail into no-VOC resin.

Here is a sample of their work:

I know that the revision process is a long and sometimes tedious process, I hope the tips this past week make the job a little easier.

Happy revising!

Suzanne Santillan

Writing on the Sidewalk

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