On the editing trail

I realized earlier this week that I hadn't posted to the blog in quite a while. There's been a couple good reasons for that--took a trip to Anguilla in the beautiful British West Indies (which I plan to write about in the near future), and the bulk of my free time has been pouring into my latest editing pass on the novel.

Last post, I had just begun re-reading the book. I was pretty pleased with the outcome. On the one hand, it's improved a lot--I've rooted out many of the large structural issues, there weren't a lot of the drifting sections, the story flows along like I want it to. There's plenty left to tighten, beef up, and otherwise improve before it's ready for prime time, but it's fulfilling to see how much progress I've made.

Anguilla was a huge boon for the writing too. Every day, I spent a couple hours of the morning with pages on the porch overlooking the water. Aside from being massively relaxing, I also got lots done, and I've carried that momentum into my return. Since I've been back, with only a few exceptions for family visits and critique group, I've edited a chapter a day. I'm not really working much faster than I used to, but I'm getting better at consistently putting in the time.

At this pace, my finish-line for being pitchable in August is looking good. Excellent!

Reading my novel for the first time

My month of rest from the novel is over. The first thing I'm going to do is just sit down and read the thing. It may sound odd--after all, I wrote the book, have edited it multiple times, dream about it at night--but none of that is the same as plain old reading.

A recent critique group meeting drove this home for me. One member sent out a "doorstop" of revised material. In this case it was the first 200 pages of her novel with some significant changes. I picked it up on a weekend, sat down, and read. My pen was at hand, but I didn't use it much.

It was enlightening to see how much of the flow and construction I had missed going through chapter by chapter. In this case it actually made the book much stronger, which is saying something given how much I enjoyed it a piece at a time. However, there's a whole class of issues that could exist that wouldn't show up with at a chapter per week pace.

Sitting down and reading through is also a specific piece of advice that Stephen King gave in On Writing. If you're a writer, I'd highly recommend that book, regardless what you think of Mr. King's other work. I listened to the audiobook, and that was even better--the man is an amazing story-teller, both on the page and verbally.

Anyway, he suggested spending some reading time with your book after the initial draft. See how it feels. What do you like? What don't you like? Did that chapter seem perfect in your head, but slow down when you read it now? Does it build the way you'd like? Did your character's name change halfway through (only partially joking there)?As the author, you'll always miss something, but that step back into more of a reader's perspective is important, and I've never done it before.

I'm hoping between the month's distance and spending the time, I'll get some insights into how I can tighten up the manuscript. Then, and only then, will I embark on the next deep editing push.

Action!

I've been recently confronted with the challenge of creating action scenes in my rewrite. This is excellent since prior drafts suffered from a slow, dragging pace, with the "climactic" ending the only real action the whole time. Now I'm finding half a dozen action scenes in the book, but it has revealed how hard they are to do right.

I'm obviously no expert, but here's some basics that critique group has highlighted about writing action:

• Keep it short: The most obvious rule--keep things short. Punchy. Snappy. Never use a big word when a diminutive one will suffice... This rule has been easy enough to internalize, but still takes editing passes to root out the wordiness.
  
• Clear players: In several scenes, my main characters are attacked by people the reader has never seen before. Establishing clear identification for those assailants and using it consistently is extremely important. Unless it's crystal clear or has another purpose, use of synonyms for those additional characters confuses things in a hurry.
  
• Clear choreography: Similar to character identity, surroundings should be crystal clear. This doesn't mean filling out every detail, but it does mean sharp, unique descriptions to ground the reader. Keeping it simple helps. I had a map of one building's layout to help me choreograph the characters' movement. When I get done, though, the read shouldn't need the same thing, whether the picture in their mind is identical to my map or not.
  

Clear, brief, snappy writing... sounds so simple, but it takes skill to pull it off.

Another tactic I've been taking to learn about this is reading (or in many cases re-reading) some action-oriented authors. Right now I've got the following on my docket:

• Richard K Morgan (Altered Carbon in particular)
  
• Helen McInnes
  
• Robert Ludlum (the Bourne series in particular)
  

What authors stick out in your mind as the peak of solid action writing?

Done! (Well, sort of)

This weekend, after long months of work, I've finally completed the rewrite of the second half of my novel. For my process, this includes 1) the handwritten copy, 2) typing the rough draft in and 3) doing a first major editing pass. I'm ready to run the material through critique group, and it's a wonderful feeling to be so close to them finally reading the end of the novel! Most of the group has read nearly a hundred pages of the original before I started back through again, and they deserve to find out how things finish up.

That's a lot of why the blog has been silent for quite a while here--basically everything extracurricular has fallen to the wayside. I've hardly read more than a chapter in the next book on my reading list. I've gotten disciplined about my blog reading, and often let it pile up for days until I hit a writing milestone first.

Additionally, my job moved to a new location which actually has a nice break room with tons of bright, tall windows. Previously, my only retreat on a lunch was, uh, the other part of my desk, and that just didn't work for me to write. Now I've been consistently stepping away to make space for the writing in the middle of the day.

It's all part of the grand master plan to be ready for the Willamette Writer's Conference coming in August. One of the big pieces of the conference that I haven't taken advantage of before was pitching with agents. This year, I should have the manuscript ready to go. It's time to start selling!

I'm going to try to blog more regularly, talking about some of what I've learned through this most recent bout of editing. Should be fun!

Of Hooks and Snarking

Miss Snark has been running a marathon Crapometer recently, this time dubbed the "Happy Hooker Crapometer." No, it's not for that type of fiction. The entry rules were to send a hook, not a full query letter, just the 250 words that would make an agent want to read your story. Miss Snark would read all of the submitted hooks (hence the marathon part, since she got almost 700 entries) and those that hooked her could send an additional first page for critique. Since I'm nearing completion of my novel, and this year hope to start submitting to agents, I decided this would be a great exercise.

If there's one thing that I've learned, it's that writing a good hook is hard. Incredibly hard. I have never slaved over three paragraphs so much. I went through dozens of variations, at least four or five major versions that I'd put significant time into before I reached anything even vaguely respectable. I guess it's a good sign in some ways--I mean, if summing up your 70,000 novel in less than 250 words is easy, either you're a genius or you've got a mind-numbingly simple novel. 250 words is not a lot of space, and there's this insane desire to cram everything in that you like about the book (and it's your book, so you probably like tons of things about it that don't belong in that hook).

Suffice to say, Miss Snark's was not impressed. No, I'm not going to point it out--public critique is one thing, reveling in it another entirely. As painful as it was to see my carefully crafted words torn to pieces, it's a huge help.

While writing the description of your book in only 250 words is hard, the toughest part is determining what's important enough to serve as the focal point. In my hook, I missed giving a clear picture of the antagonist and the main character's motivation. These needed to be the core, but instead I focused on world-building, thinking that was the essence of my story. While portraying the world is important, it isn't enough (and from the other comments, it's pretty plain that my work setting that up wasn't clear enough either.)

Not a fun time, but I'm glad anyway. Why? Because I get to hear what an agent might have thought receiving this hook in the mail a few months down the line. Rather than conveying back to me how I missed the essential motivation of the story, they would have sent a "not right for us at this time" letter, and I'd be left wondering why. The Crapometer has given me the chance to glimpse that reaction, and do something about it.

Miss Snark has started reading entries that passed the hook phase. Should be good reading, and although I didn't make the cut I'm sure I'll continue to learn from her snarky advice.

Long time...

Hard to believe that I haven't posted since September. However, the time of blog silence has ended (for the moment at least) and the quiet period has been put to good use.

Over the past few months, I finally reached the point in my rewrite where the balance has shifted from lots of editing with some new writing, to entirely new writing. It's an odd feeling to dive back into new composition after long months with the red pen in hand. At times it has been a little awkward. I've gotten a lot better at editing in short bursts as time allows, but crafting new material requires more attention than that. It's invigorating too, though, to scribble on pure white pages and spin out the story I meant to tell in the first place.

The first block of 50 pages has migrated from the handwritten page to the computer, and made it through critique group. It has confirmed that I've banished the most persistent issues that plagued the last half of the book and forced the rewrite--lack of adequate motivation for the choices the characters make, and the drifting, travelogue feel I was so enamored with during the first draft (what was I thinking?)

With that block finished off, I'll be drafting to the end now before stepping back to edit again. I'd originally hoped for a New Years finish, but with that out of the question, I feel comfortable that it'll get on the page by sometime next month.

Other writing news to come, along with a review of one of my favorite series by Gene Wolfe, The Book of the New Sun.

Deleted Scenes

I remember with the advent of DVD's how exciting it was to get special features along with your movie. In the world of VHS or the theater, you never had the chance to get all that juicy information, to see what happened behind the scenes on set, to hear the creators talk about their work. Back then, the top of the heap for me, though, was delete scenes, those snippets of the movie that never actually made it to air. Whenever I watched a movie on DVD, I would religiously work my way through the delete scenes.

Over time, though, a strange thing happened. Although I still watched the delete scenes, I found myself becoming less and less interested in them. At first I thought maybe it was the lack of post-production--no music, grainy pictures sometimes, little editing. But that didn't explain why these extras, these tidbits I had always looked forward to were leaving me less than fulfilled

The reason came clear to me just a couple weeks ago, though. The answer stems from a recent trend in my thoughts about writing. I've been working on determining what the core of my novel is, paring down what I've written so that everything on the page supports and builds on that central arc. In the process I've dumped probably 200 pages worth of material as either unnecessary or so far off the mark that it's easier to rewrite it from scratch than to rehabilitate it in place.

And that's the problem with the deleted scenes for movies--there's a reason they ended up being removed from the film. If you listen to the commentary, often it's because the pacing just wasn't right, or the information is already conveyed elsewhere, or the scene didn't quite gel. Like my discarded pages, the filmmaker discovered that these pieces weren't necessary for the story, so they stripped them out, only to return them to a half-life in the "special" features for the DVD.

A good story stands on its own. No amount of deleted scenes and creator commentary can change that fact.

Miss Snark's Crapometer

I don't think I've mentioned Miss Snark on this blog yet, but I've been faithfully reading her for the past couple months. She's an anonymous agent in New York, and she fields questions from the world with, well, snark! She's frequently quite hilarious and always cuts to the meat of what matters in the publishing industry. I've learned a ton from just reading her blog posts every day.

Anyway, as great as that is, she also has periodically run what she calls the Crapometer. She accepts submissions of query letter and first page from people, randomly selects from them and reads them like she would the slush pile. The only difference is that she then posts the results online for everyone to read and learn from. It was really quite amazing to read through, and I'm sure that when I'm getting ready to pitch I'll go back and study in more detail. In any case, the take-aways:

• That's Miss Snark. Not Ms, Mrs, or "Dear Agent." You've heard it before, but properly addressing your letter to a person is vital
  
• Query letters need to indicate plot. I remember reading that over and over again--"This isn't a plot, just a bunch of events." Plot has conflict, a course of action and resolution.
  
• Less common, though, plot is also not a complete synopsis. Keep it sharp, keep it short.
  
• Only publishing credits count. It doesn't matter where you live, what your job is (unless it's pertinent to the story), or how many of your stories you posted online have gotten great comments. If you don't have publishing credits (like yours truly), just don't say anything at all.
  

Hopefully I'll be able to put these tips into practice in the near future.

Clear sailing ahead

Don’t know if I’ll feel that way in a couple weeks here, but at the moment, the world of writing is full of hope and excitement. I’ve reached the point in my editing where I am leaving the old behind and charting a (mostly) new course to the end of my story. Once more, I’ve got broad spans of blank pages before me, and nothing to do except to fill them up.

Coinciding with that, my wife is helping her parents paint and finish projects around their property, so I’ve had several very quiet days and evenings completely to myself. The writing has gone quite well, and I feel invigorated and ready to keep blazing a trail forward. Having long stretches to come and go at writing has helped matters a lot more than I would have thought. If I’m in the flow of things, then I can keep going for a long time. But if the writing is hard, or there’s a new scene to chart out in my mind, being able to step away for a half-hour, do something different and return when I’m ready has been quite useful.

For the moment I’m simply basking in the joy of creating something anew, making over the old last half of my novel into a better, stronger story that will carry the reader along. Editing, aw, that can wait a couple weeks!

Review: My Name Is Asher Lev

My sister-in-law loaned us My Name Is Asher Lev, by Chaim Potok. It came with several other books, and she didn't say much about it other than to suggest that we read it. My wife read it first, and I watched her devour it in the course of a couple days. Afterward, she had a sort of shell-shocked look in her eyes as she told me “You have to read this.”

Encouraged by her reaction, I put it on the short-short list (the one with only about a dozen books on it), and finally got around to reading it as I set off on a business trip. The trip back was delayed by several hours, but in light of the book, that couldn’t have been a better thing!

The story chronicles the life of a young artist, Asher Lev, growing up in a Hasidic household in Brooklyn. The atmosphere of Jewish culture is rich and thick throughout the book, lovingly shown in details that help to build up the neighborhood that Asher lives in. The place has a central position both in Asher’s life and the story. However, Asher’s artistic abilities, urges and impulses that he can’t seem to control threaten his place with his people.

The language in the book is fantastic, so sharp and beautiful. Asher’s viewpoint, how he sees the world in lines and shapes, tones and colors is brought vividly to life in a way that I wouldn’t have thought possible. I found myself engulfed in his development as an artist, sucked into a world that isn’t my own.

It’s also a story about family, the ways that we hurt the ones we love most. The characters are so well drawn, they feel like your own family. And as the conclusion draws near and you see the shape of the world that Asher’s choices make, it’s breathtaking to behold. My heart pounded hard in my chest, and my mouth went completely dry as I read the last chapters of this book. I can’t remember the last time that a story has grabbed hold of me as powerfully as this one did.