Pain.
Posted by CM under Ornithology on Sun 11 Mar 2007
o I’m planning revisions. I know that thing up there says 85%, but pay it no mind. I really only have a few connecting scenes to write, and besides, that number is of no moment because if you look at my page count, it’s pretty high. Like over 400 pages. That’s what I get for not writing densely.
“Revisions” at present means “cleaning up the first 9 chapters, up until the first inflection point.” This is a point where there’s a purely . . . internal crisis for the hero. The problem is that now that I’m rereading it, I can tell that it’s slow. It’s really slow. And I have already made all these notes about things I need to include for continuity’s sake. So I got out a notebook and pen and made a list of scenes and what they did to advance the plot.
Pain. I have a scene entitled “arrival of roses.” What does it do to advance the plot? Uh. What does it actually do? It’s funny. It introduces a secondary character who disappears from the book entirely. And it was a blast to write. It would be a blast to read. Except . . . it doesn’t do anything to advance the plot. I read through it this time, knowing what the plot was, and I thought: “This is slow.” Yup. It gets deleted. And it’s so painful, because it was fun to write. But it doesn’t do anything. Nothing at all. I’m just wincing.
And that’s just on the macro level. I’ve started leaving comments for myself, saying, “Gee–is this really the twentieth time she’s whined about this? Good God.” And nearly every scene should have the first four to five paragraphs lopped off. You know that part of the scene that starts with someone thinking? Yeah. That part. My characters think too much. My characters can have a five sentence conversation that spans four pages because somebody is thinking way too much. Yup. That happens all the time. So for the next week or so, that little meter will run backwards. Backwards represents progress. I think.
So what about the rest of you? What’s the most painful thing you’ve ever had to delete?
March 11th, 2007 at 7:05 pm
The most painful thing I’ve ever had to delete? An entire manuscript. I’d workshopped it to death and put it through way too many RWA contests, and I finally realized that I’d screwed it up beyond my ability to edit it back into shape. I knew it would be easier to write the entire thing from scratch, and that’s exactly what I did.
You’d think going through that process ONCE would be enough, but apparently it takes these things a while to get through my thick head.
I hope I’ve learned my lesson about trusting my instincts and not over-workshopping my projects.
March 12th, 2007 at 10:48 am
Ouch, Lynne. An entire manuscript? That sucks.
March 12th, 2007 at 9:54 pm
I had this totally cute line in one of my novellas, where the cop (hero) saves the heroine from near death. But she misinterprets him reaching for his handcuffs and puts her hands out for him to clasp them on her wrists. He lifts a brow and says “we’ll save the handcuffs for later” Great line. . . just didn’t work in the entire context of the scene. Snip, snip.
But, I save all those snips into files. . . one day, I hope to be able to resurrect them in a different story.
Hurts all the same~
March 13th, 2007 at 8:08 am
That’s funny, I was just going to post on this topic myself. I recently had to delete a perfectly lovely description of the noise a 19th century camera made as its leather pleats expanded out of their wooden box, because my BF patiently explained to me that if the bellows made a sound like breath being exhaled, that would mean there was a hole, which would mean light could get through, which would mean you couldn’t take a photograph with it. Damn it all. I do that a lot. I think of the poetic metaphor first, and then try to pound it into the plot hole. I end up having to delete half the time.
March 13th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
Oh, you know I’m in for my share of pain, too. Wah.
But I’ve already had to give up way too many jokes because SOMEONE keeps “helpfully” pointing out that they’re anachronisms.
March 13th, 2007 at 12:20 pm
Tessa, just tell SOMEONE to go shove it.
March 14th, 2007 at 12:30 pm
I have two DOA books. I guess that’s painful - to know I’ll never fix them and they will never see the light of day. Outside of that it all blurs.
Alice
March 22nd, 2007 at 11:49 am
Oh, I so feel you on this. I’ve just barely squeaked up to my inflexion point, too, in Chapter 10, and I know exactly how you feel. And it’s like a beast that keeps growing!