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. 

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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.

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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.)

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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 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?

 

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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.

 

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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.

 

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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.

 

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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.

 

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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?

 

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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.

 

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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.

 

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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.

 

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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.

 

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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…

WFMAD Day 13 – The Roots of Writer’s Block

 

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Writer's block is so feared, that I wonder if all writers should avoid even saying or writing the words, the way that Macbeth is known in the theater as "The Scottish Play." Maybe we could call WB "The Dread Condition" or "The Foul Muse."

A few writer's don't believe in The Dread Condition, like Joyce Carol Oates, author of roughly 20,000 novels.

 

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She has a point – trying to write about something before you are ready is like trying to get a car to run on orange juice. But in my experience, there are other flavors of The Dread Condition. 

Fear of Being Less Than Perfect – Your Amazing Idea is amazing as long as it stays in your head. When you sit down to a keyboard, however, your fingers can't move. Any string of words you dream up comes so freaking far from your amazing idea that you give up and google "French Foreign Legion." Maybe they'd hire a failed writer.

Fear of Having No Talent – Every word you type is accompanied by screeching from the rabid bats fluttering around in your brain. They call up images of people from your past who doubted and judged you and made you feel like a rather small, rather dim-witted, naked mole rat. They scream that you are worthless and you're wasting your time and you are going to die, homeless, under a bridge, surrounded by shopping bags filled with empty pages. Your little paws shake so much that you can not type.

Fear of the Countless Mind-Numbing Fears That Chase Around and Around In Your Brain So Fast It Feels Like A Blender Set To Pulverize – Yeah, you're a mess. 

 

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You are a normal writer.

Everyone deals with fears like these, along with a few thousand others. Getting published does not make them go away. In fact, it can make things worse, because it sets the bar even higher.

Children make art, sing, invent stories, and dance as easily as they breathe. Somewhere along the way, many people lose the easy grace that is the natural partner of creativity. This has a lot to do with the judgement and criticism that happens in school. Our work is held up and compared to others. We're trained to strive for a high grade, one that can be evaluated and measured according to metrics and rubrics. There are fewer and fewer chances to strengthen our creative muscles and they wither.

But the desire to create does not.

Your writer's block is a painful response to old training. That training can be undone. You can get back to the ability to create with the ease of childhood. How? I'll tell you tomorrow.

 

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Non-fiction prompt – Indulge in your worst writing nightmare, the biggest fears that interfere with your work. Write it all down, all of the bad things that you fear could happen to you if you write your story. Then set the piece of paper on fire, dump the ashes into the toilet and flush.

Fiction prompt – Take a character from one of your favorite books, someone who had to overcome a fear and take a chance. Write a fanfiction piece about that character and how her life would have turned out if she had not confronted her fear and done the hard things. 

 

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Fifteen minutes spent writing today could change your life.

scribble… scribble… scribble…

WFMAD Day 12 – Start at the End or End With the Beginning?

 

 

Question: "I'm terrible at writing endings, how do you move past that?"

 

I have an advanced degree in Struggling To Figure Out How To End My Book. I am both an expert at this question and I dread it.

 

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But I'll give it my best shot.

The endings to my historical fiction novels are somewhat easier than my YA books. FEVER 1793, CHAINS, and FORGE are all grounded in historical fact and populated with fictional characters. The historical events that I use as the scaffolding for the book give me at least part of the conclusion of the external plot line. I outline my historical novels fairly heavily to ensure the right balance between the fiction and the historical facts, so it's easier to figure out where I want the book to end and how the characters will get there. 

My YA novels are much more fluid. I start with a character whom I care about and a situation which makes that character's life difficult. I do not outline at all; I explore the story as the first draft unfolds in my head and on the page. While this probably makes extra revision work for me, I have no interest in outlining my YAs. I love the magic of watching the character grow, without knowing how the story ends. 

 

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Goosebumps author R. L. Stine starts with the titles of his books and outlines heavily, so he always knows where his story is headed. It certainly works for him.

If you are stuck, rudderless, in your story, try this. Write a synopsis. Can't do that yet? Then use editor Cheryl Klein's handy-dandy Plot Checklist. Fill out what you can and you'll quickly see where and why your story doesn't have a clear resolution yet. 

 

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Please don't beat yourself up if the plot of your story doesn't leap from your head onto the page all neat and tidy. Sometimes it takes a lot of exploring and digging and pondering before your character is ready to fully share who she is and what's bugging her. In every book I write, I generally throw out 200-300 pages of scenes and chapters that don't work. Was that wasted effort? Of course not! It's all part of the adventure.

 

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Non-fiction prompt – Freewrite about a book you've read or a movie you watched that had a rotten ending. How would you have changed it? Did the author or screenplay writer screw up a plot choice or a character choice?

Fiction prompt – Using R. L. Stine's technique, write a title and a one sentance description of how a story ends, then outline it backwards to the beginning.

 

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Fifteen minutes spent writing today could change your life.

scribble… scribble… scribble…