Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Revisions

I haven't been blogging lately because a) I went to visit my parents, who live in another state, for Memorial Day weekend; b) I've been watching Youtube videos of boy bands like One Direction and The Wanted, even though I'm more than a decade older than the members and they make the same lame hand gestures and soulful looks that the Backstreet Boys and N'Sync made years ago, and yet I can't help myself from hitting "Replay" while trying not to dance along to their music; c) I've been making a list of all the ways to get back at the jerks who cut in front of me in line, including pulling their hair and throwing water balloons at their pants so that other people will point and laugh at them and think they need to wear diapers.

I've also been revising two stories that I wrote. Here's how bad I am about procrastinating: after I finished the first draft of my first novel, I put off revising it so that I could start writing the first draft of my second novel. Now that I've finished writing that draft, I've gone back and started revising both stories.

I just finished rereading Stephen King's On Writing, and he said that an editor who rejected one of his stories gave him some very good advice: "You need to revise for length. Formula: 2nd Draft = 1st Draft - 10%."

That advice definitely rings true as I revise my drafts. One thing I've noticed about both manuscripts is that I have a bad habit of repeating myself. For example, I noticed that the love interest of the main character in one of my stories kept running his hands through his hair, as if he was an actor in a shampoo commercial or a lead in one of those CW teen soaps. I also noticed that the main character and her love interest kept smiling at each other, as if they were actors in a toothpaste commercial or a Hallmark movie.

I also realized that the main characters of both stories are about as obsessive and neurotic as I am, because they kept worrying all the time about everything. To make matters worse, they kept describing what they felt, which broke one of the big rules of fiction writing: show, don't tell. I felt embarrassed about the fact that there was more description than action in some of the scenes.

There was also the fact that setting did not play a big role in either story. Both stories are supposed to be set in Chicago, but you wouldn't know it because there is too much dialogue and not enough details about what was going on around the characters. They might as well have been talking in an empty room.

So I printed out the drafts and have been going through them with a pen, crossing out lines and even entire paragraphs that I don't like. I've also been adding additional lines and entire scenes in the margins and on extra pages. That's why revision can be a good thing. It helps you learn from your mistakes, and it means that you can take out scenes or even characters that don't work in the story. It also means that your story could move in an entirely different direction, and that can be a good thing too.

What about you? What kinds of mistakes do you make in your first draft? What do you think of revision? How many times do you revise your drafts?

30 comments:

  1. The first novel I started, I abandoned after 60K words. When I began editing my second novel, I discovered that it is really meant to be a novella. I had long chapters about cleaning. The main character decides to open her own hair salon, and I obsessively detail her search for the location, the grime on the floor, and the boards that need to be nailed. I also deleted a character by combining her characteristics into another character. And I've been twiddling with the same broken and fragmented 12K words for an entire year.

    On my third novel, I am trying to revise as I go. I have been stuck on a 3 chapter, 7500 word sequence for about three weeks. It's still incomplete—I have 25K words to write—but it feels like a stronger book than my first two did. Good luck with the revisions—you've inspired me to get back to mine.

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    1. Hi Anna,
      I admire you for being able to revise as you go. I tried that before, but it was difficult. I read Anne Lamott's book Bird by Bird, and she said that she wrote bad first drafts before revising. That's usually what I do.
      Your idea of combining a character's characteristics into another character is a good one. I should try that, because there are a couple characters in my stories who keep bugging me, but there are things about them that I want to keep.

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  2. Excessive dialogue and not enough action is one of my biggest issues in a first draft!

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    1. Hi Kyra,
      I think it'd be easier if I was writing a screenplay, because then it's all dialogue. But of course even screenplays have to include action.

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  3. Sounds like you're catching some great edits! My manuscripts start out monster long and my editor and I usually chop like 25-30% from the length throughout the edits. I tend to forget to use contractions, especially in dialogue, and go on a little too much about character feelings.

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    1. Hi Jennifer,
      My manuscripts are also usually too long, because I always feel like I should include everything. I keep coming up with more stuff that I want to add to the story, but I know I can't include everything.

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  4. I revise a LOT. I can see where Stephen King needs to cut. He should have cut 10% or maybe 35% out of his last novel I read. I normally have to add. I tend to underwrite instead of overwrite. My current novel soon to be released has 63,000 words, when the first draft had about 27,000.

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    1. Hi Karen,
      Other than On Writing, I was actually only able to read one or two of his horror stories, because they're so scary that they freak me out. I even watched one of the Children of the Corn movies once when I was younger, which wasn't a good idea because I was living in a small town surrounded by corn fields at the time.
      Wow, you came up with almost 40,000 more words! That's impressive.

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  5. My first drafts stink, but they feel great to write. It takes a lot to polish them.

    I'm in revisions now, and they will continue for the rest of the summer. *sigh* Good luck with yours!

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    1. Hi Emily,
      I'll be spending my summer on revisions too, because I'm thinking it'll take more than one draft before I finally finish.
      It does feel good to write first drafts; I'm not always sure what's going to happen when I write, which is one of the things I like about it.

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  6. My first drafts have so many mistakes I just have to blame it on gremlins. Really.

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    1. Hi Rick,
      I think that if I were to share my draft with a writing group or a critique partner, I'd wait until I completed my second or third draft just because of everything I need to fix in the first draft. But that's just me. :)

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  7. Anything you do in a first draft is NOT a mistake - it's part of your "process"...at least that's what I tell myself about all the over-dramatics and repetition and overuse of certain beloved words. After completing a 2nd & 3rd draft, I get the same feeling I do after I've given my house a good scrub down. Enjoy. :)

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    1. Hi Nicki,
      That reminds me that I need to clean my apartment, which would feel good for me too because I don't like writing in a messy place. That's one of the reasons I like writing in cafes, because they clean them on a regular basis. Well, that and they have a lot of good food and coffee.

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  8. Revisions are hugely important and One Direction was staying in our hotel on a recent trip. My kids about DIED!!

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  9. What kind of mistakes *don't* I make in my first draft? They're a mess! But it's what I need to do before I can start fixing it. :)

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    1. Hi Talli,
      I think it's more fun to clean up a messy draft than a messy apartment, which is why my apartment is so cluttered I keep tripping over things. :)

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  10. My first drafts are always bad, full of indicating and smiles and nods and silly things. Good luck with editing!

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  11. I think my comments are being deleted, so if this repeats, sorry. Just saying my first drafts are quite awful.

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    1. Hi Libby,
      I'm not sure why your comments were being deleted; Blogger doesn't always function correctly. I've definitely had issues with Blogger before.
      I definitely need to edit the adverbs in my drafts; there aren't too many of them, but I think I relied on them more than I should have. And a lot of the writing books I read advised against using adverbs.

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  12. I SO prefer revision to first drafts. Really, I hate that blank page more than anything.

    I'm so glad to find your blog. Glad you found me! Are you on Twitter???

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    1. Hi Nina,
      I'm not on Twitter, partly because I have a feeling I'd spend more time on it than I should. But I have thought about joining, because I think it'd be a good way to motivate myself to write something (even if it's just a few lines) every day.

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  13. I love On Writing! About time I reread it...

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    1. Hi Deniz,
      On Writing is a really great book. I'm totally addicted to books about the writing process, because they're fun to read and they give a lot of good advice.

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  14. It can be so, so hard to see the forest for the trees when revising, but I think it's so incredibly rewarding when you're done and reading over the novel again, and it's... SO much better! That's what happened to me this weekend :) It's all worth it. And ditto about the boy bands. I grew up with Backstreet and NSync, and I am concerned that these current boy bands may have been babies back in those days... Very concerned.

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    1. Hi Julie,
      I think that most of the guys in One Direction and The Wanted weren't even born when the New Kids on the Block were popular, which makes me feel really old. :)

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  15. I pretty much make the same mistakes in the first draft. It's good that you are able to spot the mistakes so you can fix them.

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    1. Hi Lynda,
      It's easier for me to spot the mistakes once I finish the draft, because I don't really see/notice them when I'm writing.

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  16. I think it's just awesome you wrote a novel. 1st draft or whatever. AND a second one. Bravo: that alone is so difficult! I'm sure you'll get it whipped into shape and I hope to read it someday! :)

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    1. Hi New York Cliche,
      Thanks! It felt good to finish writing the first drafts of both novels. I figure that each novel is a learning experience.

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