Throwing Out the Things You Love

There comes a time in life when you know that all the junk you’ve horded just has to go, and I’m there. Today I hit my 150,000 word limit on Book II of the series I’m working on. That means it’s time for me to stop writing, even though there are gaps all through the manuscript. I find that if I try to fill in all those gaps the store will be stale and I’ll grow bored and frustrated with it, as well as compound any continuity errors I’ve made. It would also be a waste of time, because several bits I’ve written no longer fit within the overall story.

So what to do now?

My next goal is to read what I’ve written – all of it, from beginning to end. As I go, I intend to write both a chapter synopsis, and a character synopsis for each PoV character. There are 9 of those, which may seem to some like a ridiculously large number of PoV characters. There’s two major ones, two semi-major ones, and the rest are minor characters. I’m wondering if some of them will have to go, because that many PoV characters is generally considered  a lot.

The character synopses will be to ensure that every PoV character has a full story; each needs their goals and motivations, their journeys and resolutions. By writing a summary of what happens to each character throughout the book, I’ll be able to see if there are holes in their stories. The chapter synopsis will ensure that those individual stories tie in together.

I’ve let Book I sit for about 5 months after finishing it, so I’m going to begin this process on that and let Book II sit before I begin revising it. Here’re a few things I know I need to change in Book I.

Non-existent characters: In the very beginning of the book,  the main character mentions two friends, who then disappear for the rest of the book. I had great plans for those characters, but as the story unfolded they just didn’t evolve. I loved the idea of those characters, but they didn’t have a place in my novel. I’ll save those characters for something else, as I will scenes I’ve written that no longer fit the story.

Over-used  and under-effective words:  I don’t know how many times I say ‘he sighed’ or ‘she sighed’ or ‘she let out a long sigh.’ I know I’ve used ‘sigh’ far, far, far, far too much and I’m sure there are others words I’ve utilised too often. Use a word enough times, and it fails to have meaning. It’s the same with common words. A thesaurus will come in handy here.

Bad writing: I think this is more a case of one constantly improving with experience, and certainly one of rewriting as opposed to cutting. I thought my writing was great when I began Book I, but now I look at a lot of the earlier stuff and just cringe. My writing has improved that much that I recognise how atrocious my prose and dialogue and just about everything used to be. I think I could revise once, and the same thing would happen; in the time it takes to go through the story, I’d improve further and again I’d see the flaws. So I’m going to revise once, and then I’m sending it out.

Plot holes: Pretty sure I don’t have any, but that might change once I read through it fully for the first time. I will attempt to read the book as someone who has no knowledge of it. Admittedly this will be difficult, so perhaps I should find a draft reader or two.

Show, don’t tell: Sometimes I’ve done this really well, and sometimes my writing comes across as a brief list of events. This was due in part to just not being a great writer. At other times, it was due to me feeling that if I tried to find the right words, it would take me forever and the story would never be finished. So I forced myself to ignore the bad writing and just get it out. You can’t edit or improve something you haven’t written.

My plan is to go through the story in hard copy. I’m kind of thrilled to be able to print and hold something I created! But I’ve also heard revision is more effective on paper. I think that, without the computerised ability to instantly edit, the process will be more focused and I’ll be able to complete it more efficiently.

If anyone has any advice, leave a comment for the benefit of others!

My next few posts will focus on the editing process and its inevitable deviation from my plan!