Playing the Revision Game

by Mary Sutton / @mary_sutton73

At one point this morning, I had three Chapter 21s. No, I am not joking.

I was frustrated. I kept trying to make new things happen, and the story traveled down the same well-worn path. The wrong path. I wanted to drag the entire manuscript to the trash.

This is what happens when you're revising. You rip out pieces. You write new ones. You move things around. You realize that the scene you just wrote really belongs about three chapters earlier. You start hating your story.

It's messy. It's necessary. And if you're not careful, it will drive you batty.

But I'll live, I guess.

Into all of this comes an exciting new project, one with a deadline of 1 September 2012. And a theme. I won't say more yet because, well, I don't know if I should. But it's kind of cool.

It also gives me an opportunity to use a new trend on Twitter - #1k1hr. The concept is that you write 1,000 words in 1 hour. No editing, no revising. Just write. I like the concept because as writers sometimes the hardest part of what we do is just power through the words. I'm just not sure how it works with my current rewrite. Do I see if I added 1,000 words in an hour? But what if what I need to do is rip out 1,000 words?

You see the dilemma.

But there are days when it's hard to sit down and "get-r-done," so I can see the value of #1k1hr.

What do you do on the days where the words just don't come or the rewrite seems to be going nowhere?

Baby Steps

So, the big news of today, I'm guest blogging for Writer Wednesday over at "The Blotter," a blog from my friend and Sisters in Crime sib Joyce Tremel. Check it out if you are so inclined, and read an excerpt from my first Jim Duncan short story.

Other than that, I've jumped into Rewrite #2 for the as-yet untitled novel. (I really must remedy that lack of a title thing.) I'm feeling pretty good about it. In Rewrite #1, I switched to third-person POV because I thought it was necessary. Then I took a great workshop in March and learned that wasn't necessarily true - so Rewrite #2 moves me back to first-person POV with limited third-person scenes.

Of more importance is introducing another character and added depth for the protagonist. Why should you care about her? Why does she care about this murder? Those kinds of questions. I've heard this referred to as "the hole in the heart" - essentially, the reason you are rooting for her.

When I first let someone read my draft, the main comment was, "Your character is too damn happy." Hopefully this second rewrite addresses that. I mean, I don't want her to be absolutely miserable, but I don't want Pollyanna either.

The body is dropped in chapter 1, but previously the idea of murder didn't happen until chapter 7. A bit late, so that concept has moved up to chapter 3.

Anyway, I feel like I'm on the right track. Progress by word count is tricky (since the words are really already written and I'm just adjusting), but I've worked through the first six existing chapters.

I added the equivalent of 12 chapters in the last rewrite. Wonder what I'll add/subtract this time?