WFMAD Day 18 – Revision Roadmap

The process of Boiling Down The Bones (aka Revision) is the hardest part of the writing process to teach, but I'll give a shot.

I'm starting with one massive assumption – you understand that nobody writes a publishable first draft and everyone's work can be made better with revision. For the record, my novels usually go through eight drafts. 

971396b0ab666b69778b05c387eabed6

I always work with two levels of revision: LOGIC and POLISH. Today is LOGIC day.

The goal of the LOGIC edit is simple: make sure each scene flows smoothly and inevitably to the next.

I start with the biggest piece of paper I can find. On this I list all of the scenes of the book, summarizing them in as few words as possible (bullies corner Yoda, Tyler confronts bullies, bullies run off, etc.). You will likely have several different scenes within each chapter.

To the left of the summary line that I make a note of the date and time of day when each action takes place. To the right of each one I place an up arrow or a down arrow, indicating if the scene ends on a negative or positive emotional note for the main character. For a few books, I've noted the location of each scene as well.

Note: if the significant action in a scene is an important bit of dialog, add CONVO to the summary line.

What you end up with is a roadmap of sorts; an overview of your story all on the same page or two, depending on the size of your handwriting. (Some people prefer to use index cards – one card per scene – which they either pin to a line strung across a room, or lay out on the floor after they've penned up the children and pets. Do what makes you happy.)

Now the fun begins.

e06610f00a1d35585785eb118fcafa31

Forget about what you know about your story. Forget the backstory that you didn't put on the page, or the real-life situation that inspired a scene or the whole book. The goal is to see only what is on the page in front of you. 

1. Which scenes can be removed without causing any major effect on your story? (I always find a bunch of these.) If a scene is not vital – if it doesn't further our understanding of a character or move the action forward – get rid of it. It's useless fluff. If the thought of cutting it causes your gallbladder to flare up, reconsider the scene itself: what changes can you make that will either further our understanding of a character or move the action forward (or both!)?

Draw a line thru the scenes you want to cut.

Sometimes a scene seems out of place, or you realize that the scene is important, but you haven't set it up properly. Make a quick note (on a stickie if you're out of room) about where the scene should go and what you're missing.

2. Now read through your road map, paying attention this time to pacing. Are there sections that drag on, with scene after scene hitting the same emotional point without either adding to or dispersing tension? Are your sub-plots properly extended through the major narrative? Make a note of what needs to move where to tighten your pacing. I do this by drawing a lot of arrows. By the time I'm done, it looks like a battalion of drunken ants has staggered all over my roadmap.

3. Read through again, this time paying attention to your location notes. If all of the action in your book only happens in a small handful of locations, ponder this awhile. Is that really the right approach, or is there more you can do with the story by introducing new locations? In my new book (The Impossible Knife of Memory, comes out in Jan 2014), there are many scenes at the main character's house. Most of them have to be there, but a couple became much more powerful when I changed the location because the new setting allowed my characters to engage in actions that strengthened the narrative.

4. Go back to the scenes that you maked CONVO. Are they actual scenes, with action, or do you have two or more talking heads? Maybe you want talking heads, but be advised that too much of that reads like a screenplay. 

Here is a real life roadmap from earlier this year showing my dissection of the last two-thirds of my new book (we abbreviate it to TIKOM around here) back when it was Draft 3 and very far away from being complete. (No one saw the manuscript until Draft 5.)

IMG_0169

Once your road map is complete, you dive back into the manuscript, slicing, dicing, shredding, adding, and, believe it or not, enjoying yourself because making your story stronger always feels great.

Next post: How to POLISH.

Non-fiction prompt – Make a roadmap of your manuscript, or of the first ten chapters of a favorite book. 

Fiction prompt – Take a scene from your book and flip it into an unexpected location. Instead of at school, move everyone to the zoo. (Where in the zoo? Specificity is everything!) Instead of the mall, put them in a subway car, or at a county fair where the rides are all run by creepy-looking carnies.

Fifteen minutes spent writing today could change your life.

scribble… scribble… scribble…

WFMAD Day 17 – The Bones of Writing – Part 2

 

People sometimes ask me to quantify how much time I spend in the different stages of the writing process. That’s a tough question.

If you held my favorite teddy bear hostage and forced me to answer, I’d say roughly 5% goes to Pondering and Mucking Around, 15% is spent Scribbling, 70% is Boiling Down The Bones, and 10% is figure out how to Craft Chords and Singing.

 

imgres

 

Let me explain that last 80%. It’s rather important. Other people call it Revision. I'm using more interesting language to prevent that awful allergic reaction some of you have when faced with the concept. This is how it works for me.

 

018adb7ae847233b93ee40251ce00762

 

Boiling Down The Bones – After scribbling that hideous, but somehow lovable first draft, I usually have 300-400 pages of chaos. Sometimes it’s obvious what’s not working. I often have two minor characters who serve the same purpose in the story and thus can be melded into one, or I have set every scene in one of three locations and that is completely boring.

Sometimes I'm still uncovering my main character and the true, deep story of her life on the fourth or fifth draft. I know I'm getting close when I've thrown out a couple of hundred pages. That seems to be the amount of dreck that I must clear away before I can really get to work.

There is a simple trick for maintaining your focus through the months (or years) that books demand. Just ask "How can I make this better?" If the answer is that you cannot, that the book is perfection itself, put it aside for a few weeks and ask again, "How can I make it better?"

Starting that question with "How" is what forces you to examine the strengths and weaknesses of your story and be honest with yourself. 

 

dog_reading

 

Crafting Chords – If you think of the scenes and conflicts in a book as musical notes, then you can imagine arranging and rearranging the notes into patterns and riffs until they make a song. That’s the most basic level of storytelling.

Your goal in revision is to find the layers within your story, the image systems that will unite subtext with text and give your story depth and richness

(HT to Robert McKee for the phrase “image systems” which I have borrowed from his book Story and the workshop of his that I attended with some writer buddies about 15 years ago.)

Singing – You’ve got chords now so you can sing! With your imagery in place, with your plot and character development in place, now you can really plunge into the vast ocean of language and come up with precisely the right words to elevate your prose to a new level.

Storytelling – Look at you! You wrote a book, or a short story or a poem! Put it away again, maybe for a month. No, even better, put it away for a full cycle of the moon and start working on your next project.

 

Moon

 

When the moon again reaches the fullness that it has that night, take out your manuscript again. Record yourself reading it out loud – every single word. A few days after that, carve out a day of uninterrupted time and listen to the recording while you follow along with the text version either printed out or on your computer screen. Take your time and listen to the book. Your ears will hear clunky passages and dialog that your eyes didn't pick up. Every time you hear something that doesn’t sound right, make a note on the manuscript. The next day, go through and fix all those tiny problem areas you found.

 

cat-headphones

 

Tomorrow and Thursday I'll post more tried-and-true revision techniques.

 

Non-fiction prompt – Describe the absolute best thing that you want to have happen after you publish your book. 

Fiction prompt – Your main character picks up a boy who is walking down the road during a snowstorm, not wearing a coat. When he gets in the car, your MC realizes that he's older than a boy, and there is something unsettling about his eyes…

 

Fifteen minutes spent writing today could change your life.

scribble… scribble… scribble…

 

WFMAD Day 16 – The Bones of the Writing Process – Part 1

We suck at teaching writing.

We use beige, dust-covered words and arrange them in well-balanced, useless diagrams like this….

writing_process_2-copy

… and then we roll our eyes when students say they hate writing. We are idiots.

It’s time to rename the stages of writing. We’re writers, right? (Try saying that fast three times!) It’s our job to bring words to life.

These are the stages of my writing process:

  • Pondering
  • Mucking Around
  • Scribbling
  • Abandonment
  • Boiling Down The Bones
  • Chords
  • Singing
  • Storytelling

A little more interesting, don’t you think?

happydog

Pondering – You know how you can smell smoke before you realize that it’s smoke? There’s that moment when your nose twitches, before you are fully aware what's going on, then you lift your head, face into the wind and there it is – something is burning.

That’s what it feels like when I’m pondering an idea for a new book. I begin to notice things – articles, new songs, a hairstyle or a pair of decorated sneakers – and I find myself jotting them down. I might have a book idea or I might not. If I jump in too early and try to force a description of the characters or the major plot points, everything vanishes. I ponder until my ponderer is sore.

Mucking Around – When the idea takes solid shape – I know a bit about the character and I think I know a couple of the book’s important moments of conflict – I start jotting things down. I play a lot of “What if” games and start exploring the relationships my main character has with the other characters who have popped onto the page and are refusing to leave.

Scribbling – Other people would call this a “first draft.” It always starts out being so much fun, but after seventy pages or so it often bogs down because I don’t know enough about the characters yet. Some people take a sideways step at this point and make outlines. I’ve tried that. I always throw them out. I have to put my head down and plow my way to the end of the book. The only way out of the Deep Dark First Draft Forest is to write myself a path.

Abandonment – Yep, you read that write right. I abandon the book. I put it away for a couple of weeks and work on other projects. My subconscious needs time to process all the scribbling and sort through it. By the time I get to the end of that first draft I'm finally beginning to understand the world of the story. And that’s when the real fun begins… REVISION!!!

Which I’ll discuss tomorrow.

32358394d12023914a8f59facf562779

Non-fiction prompt – What are your favorite and most-hated parts of the writing process? Be specific and honest about what it feels like to be in your most-hated part.

Fiction prompt – Look at the grinning dog above. Why is she smiling like that? Who is she with? What is the setting? How old is she, what's her backstory? What happens next?

Fifteen minutes spent writing today could change your life.

scribble… scribble… scribble…

WFMAD Day 15 – Should You Censor Yourself?

 

Banned Books Week kicks off today which makes this a great time to discuss writing about sensitive topics. Should you think about the possibility that your book will be censored? What are your responsibilities to your readers?

 

banned-books-week-final_Page_3small

 

When I was writing SPEAK, I never thought that it might be censored. The possibility that the book would be labeled "pornography" never entered my mind, which was good, because if I had known, I might not have had the courage to write it. I used to shy away from confrontation; just the thought of having to stand up to people saying nasty things about me was enough to make my stomach hurt.

 

anigif_enhanced-buzz-12979-1378530885-1

 

Even though I've had many challenges to my books, when I'm writing I don't think about censorship. I do think about my readers…. but not until I am revising. Early drafts are supposed to be written in a white heat, leaving open the windows, doors and gates so that you can catch all the streams of imagination that trickle by you. But you revise with detachment and coolness. You have to fall out of love with your story so you can see the flaws clearly. You try to see the story the way a reader would. If you are writing for kids or teens, that means you take their sensibilities into account.

In early drafts, the rape scene in SPEAK was graphic. I needed to write it that way to really understand what had happened to Melinda and why she was so depressed and isolated. I put it away for a month or so, then I pulled it out and read it with a degree of detachment. I knew what had to change and why.

 

speakcvr

 

You see, 44% of rape victims are under age 18 and 15% are younger than 12. I wanted the book to be something that could be read by 8th graders, even 7th graders. It makes us uncomfortable to think about it, but middle schoolers are exposed to a bewildering world of sexual behavior (looking at you, Miley Cyrus) and are often very confused about what's going on, what the boundaries are, and what they should do when confronted with sexual violence.

SPEAK is told from the point of view of Melinda, who was raped at a party. The toned-down description of the assault works because it is filtered through her shock and inebriation. It also allows the focus of the reader to be on the emotional consequences of the sexual assault and Melinda's struggle to find the courage to speak up after it, which was the whole point of writing the story.

When I'm confronted by people who call me bad names or accuse me of seeking to ruin children's lives, I ask them if their school library contains newspapers. The answer is always "yes." That means that the students are exposed to pretty much everything that happens in our society, the good stuff and the horrific stuff. Books like mine seek to tell honest stories about realistic situations facing kids today.

 

speakquote

NOTE: If you don't write realistic fiction for kids or teens, you still stand the chance of having your books challenged or banned. No matter what you write, someone will criticize you.

The top image refers to the banning of Lord of the Rings, which was accused of being "satanic." I have a friend who wrote a Halloween book that came under fire from a group of parents who were so upset they showed up in the principal's office the day she was due to present at the school. The parents weren't worried that her book was evil or satanic. They were all Wiccan and felt that my friend's book perpetuated negative stereotypes (witches with long chins and warts and pointy hats) of their faith community.

I work hard to protect our freedom to read year-round. I you want to lend your energy, there are many things you can do. But try to lock the door in your head when it comes time to work on early drafts. When revising, consider your audience, and craft the story so that you will reach them in the most effective way. If the day ever comes when your book is challenged, bake yourself a cake because you just joined a club with many distinguised authors.

 

Non-fiction prompt –  Write a response to the people who tried to ban one of these books

Fiction prompt – Write a scene in which a group of people with firm convictions go to a school board meeting to get a book they object to pulled from the shelves of the library. The media is out in full force, cameras are rolling, the room is split 50/50 about the challenge and the air conditioning is broken.

 

c862ff9dfc53b986d1fc0617d7291673

Fifteen minutes spent writing today could change your life.

scribble… scribble… scribble…

WFMAD Day 14 – The Magic Word That Destroys Writer’s Block

 

Sorry for the delay in this post, you guys. Some random, flatulant demon farted near an underground cable yesterday and temporarily removed my website from the Internet. A crew of dedicated technicians expelled the demon and worked feverishly through the night and so here we are.

Thanks for your patience.

(If you ever see a demon in the grocery store, DO NOT let him buy beans. Thank you.)

Where were we?

 

debc2e8e02f1ed69892ec9edb1f17758

 

Oh yeah. Writer's Block.

So – you have this dream about writing, or you're living the writing dream and you've actually sold your first book and now you have an advance and a contract and a deadline, and ….. the words won't come. Or you find that you are suddenly seized by the urge to alphabitize your spice rack by Country of Origin, or seek the perfect three-bristle, squirrel-hair brush that is the only way to clean the thing that you screw a lightbulb into.

You are in the throes of an evil spell.

 

tumblr_mrl2ogLnpo1rtx7h7o1_500

 

Ouch.

In my experience, Writer's Block comes from:

1. Fear

2. Empty-Well Syndrome

3. More Fear.

 

Fear can be broken down a little further into these flavors:

1. The fear that the words you are about to write are less than Pulitzer-Prize or best-selling quality. In fact, they are so stupid, your computer might blow itself up out of shame if you type even one more word.

2. The fear that you don't have the talent to do any of this and that you are $200,000 in debt for your undergrad and MFA degrees and you are only qualified to load commercial dishwashers.

3. The fear that your ideas are so boring people will sue you because after they read two pages of your manuscript they'll fall into stupor, fall down, and get a concussion.

There is only one solution.

 

imgres

Seriously, you guys. Get a grip.

Yes, it's scary. Yes, you might not get this story published. Of course you're to going to be rejected and criticized and people are going to say mean things about you on the Internet. You have very little control over that.

You have TOTAL control over how you deal with your fears.

1. Focus on the process, not the outcome. This is boring and hard, which is why people prefer to fret about their Internet platform and Amazon ranking. Snap. Out. Of. It. Writers write

2. Think about the next step, not the entire race. When you start to hyperventilate because you don't know how to get an agent, grab yourself by the ear and shift your focus to the next chapter that is begging you to write it. Or the next paragraph. Just one more sentance, if necessary. Baby steps.

3. Be grateful you're not a neurosurgeon. This is the best thing about writing!!! We get to fix the sucky parts!!!! (Neurosurgeons have to get it right the first time, poor sods.) So write that crappy draft, that bloated dialog. You'll fix it later, no worries!

4. Recognize that working on an oil rig is much harder than writing. If you have the time and space in your life to even think about writing a book, then you have an abundance of blessings. Count them. Write them down.

Pouring roof tar in Lousiana in July is hard. Teaching ninth grade is hard. Writing is awesome – you get to play with your imagination and create entire new worlds.

 

tumblr_mr2uw3RUqv1rb04t1o1_500

 

What was that Filling The Well thing I mentioned above?

It is very easy to burn out as a writer, especially if you succeed in being published and then face relentless deadline pressure. Filling your creative well is the only solution to burn-out. You need to read (for fun, not research) – read outside your genre, read books from other cultures and countries, read poetry. Listen to music. Indulge your senses. Make something with your hands. Draw, paint, weave. Buy yourself a coloring book and pretty pens and stay inside the lines, if that makes you happy. 

That's it in one word: happy.

When you are trapped in fear or anxiety or self-loathing, you cannot create. Embrace the only guarantee granted to all writers: making stuff up is fun. The more you can stay centered in that joy, the more you will write. The more you write, the better you'll feel; the better you feel, the more open you become to new ideas, and all of sudden writing becomes something that you look forward to again, instead of somethng you dread.

 

889bac9cd5a88dd7a10ea55484f71f40

 

 

Non-fiction prompt – Write down how you are going to fill your creative well this week. Include one field trip; trip to a museum, concert, movie, pumpkin patch, etc. After your "well time," freewrite about the experience.

Fiction prompt – Write a scene in which a frustrated writer takes a four-year-old to the zoo. Focus on the stream of consciousness that naturally flows from the child.

 

Fifteen minutes spent writing today could change your life.

scribble… scribble… scribble…