Margaret Moore just blogged about the challenge of revisions when scenes move and motivations and reactions must alter.
I'm neck (eyebrows?) deep in a major revision on my most recently completed manuscript right now and it's taking way longer than I expected it to. (Way longer than my agent expected it to, as well, which is making me feel a tad uncomfortable. Will she ever trust me to meet contractual deadlines???)
After getting some great comments on an earlier draft of this novel from not only my agent, but also another TKA agent... I did some serious thinking, culminating in a few flashes of what I thought were genius ways to improve the novel. And the changes weren't even that big, I thought. Just tweaking some of the backstory and original motivations of the main characters, adding a prologue, changing a few scenes here and there, tweaking a few rules in my imaginary world. Piece of cake, right?
But, like the much more experienced Margaret, I'm finding the butterfly effect holds true on stories as well as time travel. One little tweak at the beginning and the ripple effects spread everywhere.
Wish me luck!
(Oh, and I participated in a big October Ovation blog round up over on my other blog today.)
6 comments:
Great post - I've checked out your blog a couple of times now and haven't been disappointed...except for the fact that I'm too far to slug a cold one with you guys - you rock!
At this point in my life, I don't call them revisions, I call them re-writing.
But even the smallest revisions can have a huge impact..
Which goes back to Molly's point, maybe more planning in advance can help reduce revisions..
Given this latest book I've been working on, I'm definitely going to try that,
I was just thinking about this Maureen -- I've written 25 pages in the last like four months and in trying to keep everything in my head, I am handling every subplot in every scene. It's a hot mess, but i figure I can take it out when I come to my senses. Because that should work - right? I mean, foolproof, right?
Tracy - thanks for stopping by - a cold one sounds good. Really good.
I'm just coming off a September 30th deadline. I'm still recuperating and trying to prepare myself for the next deadline.
Rewrites and revisions are the pits. Goodluck Maureen!!
Thanks for the shout-out. Sinead, I call such changes renovations, like when you decide to redo the kitchen and find out all the wiring's shot, and the floor you want won't work because the whole house is crooked and the paint you've selected looks terrible in daylight.
Now I'm off to renovate Chapter One AGAIN. I'm hoping it's just touch-ups, but I've thought that before....
Hey, it worked! I can't tell you how many times I've tried to post a comment here and my computer crashed instead! Whoo hoo! :-)
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