Revising, rewriting or both?
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
While I am following the instructions of the One Pass Manuscript Revision to the letter, I am stunned when I step back from my desk and see the acres of blue ink. (I'm not using red, that would be too painful to look at.) Part of me feels that I'm murdering my baby.
Then I remember that this step is important to ensure that my novel can go out in public and not get beaten to a pulp on the last step of the porch.
But I've discovered a weed. One of those evil plot weeds that shouldn't be there in the first place. And it's spread out over a few chapters, just like my neighbour's dandelions.
Once I discovered it, I tried to carefully work the material around it before giving it a gentle tug. Nothing happened. So I gave it a yank - and ended up with about 12 pages featuring big X's running through them. Rats.
There is good news though. My characters now have more depth than 8" x 10" glossies, and their names don't all start with the letter J anymore. I blame Josh Holloway, Jake Gylenhall and Jerry Lewis... because I can.
Then I remember that this step is important to ensure that my novel can go out in public and not get beaten to a pulp on the last step of the porch.
But I've discovered a weed. One of those evil plot weeds that shouldn't be there in the first place. And it's spread out over a few chapters, just like my neighbour's dandelions.
Once I discovered it, I tried to carefully work the material around it before giving it a gentle tug. Nothing happened. So I gave it a yank - and ended up with about 12 pages featuring big X's running through them. Rats.
There is good news though. My characters now have more depth than 8" x 10" glossies, and their names don't all start with the letter J anymore. I blame Josh Holloway, Jake Gylenhall and Jerry Lewis... because I can.
posted by Bonnie Staring at 12:16 AM
3 Comments:
Thanks for blogrolling me. I've blogrolled you as well and I like your blog!
Mad Kane
http://www.madkane.com
LOL - My husband can relate to this all too well! His first round, all his characters were of the same race and very similar - and shallow. ;o) He did some reading on creating unforgettable characters and new life was born into his novel. It was painful to change. He also had to weed out a lot of content that he thought was cool but didn't benefit the story line. It's a tough process!! Good luck to you!
Hugs,
Holly
Holly's Corner
Like your blog too Mad Kane. As for the one pass, this is my first attempt at it, so it may end up being a 1.5- or 44-pass revision once I'm done. ;)
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