It's amazing to me how I can stare at a scene, know it isn't working, wonder how to fix it, then decide to go take a shower since I'm stumped. And usually some sort of answer presents itself while I'm standing under the hot water. 🙂
I've been working on the rewrites to Seducing Evangeline, taking the revision suggestions I received from the Harl. editor and incorporating them into the story. Wow, I really like it too, especially now that I'm back to the point in the story where I was when I put the whole thing aside for the thesis.
Making changes is both fun and hard. It's fun when the lightbulb goes off and you get it. It's hard to decide what to axe and what to keep. It's also frustrating when you first get the revisions and don't quite know what to do with them. That's the point where you think you suck, your story sucks, your ideas suck, and you'll always suck and never sell this book or any other book, ever. I hate that part, but I love it when the aha moment happens and I get past that.
So, I went to the shower with this dilemma in my head: where to put this scene (already written, but feeling like it was in the wrong place) that explained something about one of the bad guys, a guy who unfortunately has to die very soon. As I stood there, it came to me. The scene is unnecessary. It's a bummer to have to cut all that work, but I was so relieved to realize the answer that I didn't care. I'm not so dumb as to cut forever, though. I have a “Discarded Scenes” file for every book, so I paste it into there. I never reuse them, but I like knowing they're there if I need to.
My DS file is over 200 pages (for one book — yes, I've cut quite a lot, including most of one previous version of the same story). The WIP file is right around 95 pages so far. 🙂 Ah well, that's the way it works.
What about you? Where do you get your WIP lightbulb moments? Shower? Walking? Gym? Grocery store? Do you have a DS file? Is it as big as mine? 🙂
On Uncommon Virtues, my outtakes file was 200 pages. On Promises, it was nearly 250. Of course, a great deal of those where the many times I killed them off. 🙂
LOL.. I am totally rewriting my novel… I was originally about 10,000 words. I have taken an outline and completely started over and today I am at 4,000 words.
But hey… I am more energized about it 🙂
Know what you mean. And I am meeting new characters and incorporating old characters… and the next time around I will put in a lot more descriptions.
Too funny, Terry! I haven’t succumbed to killing my characters yet. I’m glad to know I’m not the only one with major DS files. 🙂 I still have them for LOTM as well, and that is amazing, let me tell you. The original clocked in around 800 pages. And then I cut over 200 for the agent who was interested. I sure was disappointed back then, but I know why she didn’t take it on now. Sheesh.
Hey, I really enjoyed UV. Have you thought of going to one of the e-presses with it? Did you ever try Dorchester? You were much better at boiling a story into its essential elements than I was.
Hey, Cyn! So one of the major things you may have discovered about yourself in this process is that you are an outliner. I am not, unfortunately. I think it makes things easier, but my mind doesn’t work that way. May explain why I’m currently looking at my story and going, “What next?” 😉
Congratulations on your rewrite. Getting over that hurdle of throwing out writing is hard at first, but once you can do it, it makes things easier in the long run. I think it was Thomas Wolfe who said (paraphrase here) that a paragraph (scene, chapter) may be the best work you’ve ever done but have absolutely no place in your finished manuscript. You have to learn to kill your darlings, basically.
Terry: I should clarify that the reason I asked about Dorchester was because they seem more open to different ideas. One of my chapter mates has sold them a trilogy of novels set in the WW1 and WW2 eras, which are usually hard sells. She has won awards with the first two: Blood Moon Over Bengal and Blood Moon Over Britain. Check out the absolutely GORGEOUS covers!
She just turned in the next book, Blood Moon Over Berlin, so I don’t know when it will be out.
Oh, and my understanding it that they are also more open to western historicals now than other pubs. You have one or two of those on the ol’ harddrive, right? 🙂
So true Lynn about Outlining… I used to do it with my English papers.. But my finished product never looked like the outline… I guess it is my security blanket to keep me writing…
And I am known to change my outline as I go along. LOL
Oh hell, I never outline a thing! Dr. Atkins would be horrified, of course. I didn’t even outline my thesis. I was forced to do a very rough preliminary sketch of it for the pre-proposal. When I wrote the proposal, I had to do a literature review and write the first chapter. The hardest part for me was doing the sketch of how I thought the thesis would be divided (for the table of contents). My mentor instantly nixed the way I divided it, though he approved the proposal.
I finally figured it all out, based on the intro, and wrote each chapter with no plan in mind. Gawd, I don’t recommend that to anyone!
I wish I could do it, I really do. I’ve tried. I even used a plotting board, which actually works for me to a point. I plan out the next chapter, sometimes even the next three, but no farther ahead than that. Right now, I’ve just figured out the next scene, which I hope will lead to the next and the next. I know I need a dead body, and I know who. 🙂