Can I just say that my Revision Cave is a very happy place? Because it is. I know some people absolutely hate revision or don't even do it (WHAT?!?!!? WHY?!!!???), but for me, it's so much fun! This is where some of the best magic happens, and it's also the place where things start to look more pretty and less rough.
I know and understand my plot at this point so I can actually see what kind of pacing I need. And if you're anything like me, you don't fully understand or know your characters until you finish a first draft. Luckily, now I do!
Last Friday night I had a critique session with the First Novels Club and also received notes from my CP Jeri Smith-Ready that were super helpful. So I'm really excited to get this going and turn this book into the vision I had of it in my head before my roughened words hit the paper.
To give you a bit of an idea of how I'm tackling this, I'm starting in two places.
1) Research. My novel takes place in a location I've never traveled to before. I had a pretty decent idea of this place going in--thanks to the fact that I am a research-nut, but now is where the real work comes in and I add in the important details and do all of my fact checks. This extends beyond location research and includes medicine and culture. I've already filled several pages of a new revision notebook with research notes.
2) Character Arcs. Because I pantsed this novel, a lot of my characters surprised me. A lot. They didn't tell me all their secrets at first (they rarely ever do even when I outline), but now I know...or I at least know they were keeping A secret. So I can figure those out and actually flesh out their characters. So my first step will probably be to write out very detailed bios about each of my characters. The key for me to understanding a character is to know A) What they want most in the world, more than anything else they've ever wanted, and B) what is keeping them from getting it.
So there you have it. I'll try to post more as it comes up and I have concrete things to discuss other than "I cut some paragraphs."
How's everyone else doing with their writing/revision/editing goals this week?
Yay revision cave? Am I a dork or what? I actually picked up Jerri's book SHADE today (hanging out at the town library FTW). Pretty good read. :) I'm coming out of the revision cave - I just got to 54,000 words (this means I added a bunch of scenes and added dialogue because, uh, I do a lot of telling). Next I'm handing it over to a third pair of eyes and hopefully that'll be my last pass...but who knows!
ReplyDeleteI am so fascinated by the way you do revisions. I'm also working on character arcs, etc. It's hard stuff, man! But I think I'm getting the hang of it.
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Oooh you're reading SHADE? I hope you enjoy--one of my all time favorite series! And congrats on leaving your cave--I hope the beta reading goes well. I totally believe in you--you can do it!
DeleteWoot woot! I think I like the revision cave a little too much. The number of my latest word doc is officially "#infinity", as I already have over 16 revised versions of the manuscript going....I'm relatively certain however that there won't be a "#infinity2" after this one. ...Maybe.
ReplyDeleteHaha--the cave is pretty great--but we do have to leave it eventually. Good luck finishing yours!
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