To continue my impromptu Year of No Fear series, I want to talk about novel revision.
Everyone says it’s critical. That you can’t possibly write a first draft and not revise. And I’ve found that to be true. For me, it’s even more critical.
See, I’m a pantser (I don’t typically outline my books) and my first drafts are exploratory drafts. It’s literally how I learn the story. I also have a muse that’s prone to meandering and taking off on various tangents. Which is fine. In a first draft. But that method requires a huge amount of revision. I normally don’t know where the story is going for at least a third of a way into it, maybe even half. So then I gotta make sure I excise all the dead plot threads, maybe combine or cut characters, remove or create a subplot or two…or, as with Fey Touched, make the second half match the first. It’s a hell of a lot of work, and people have questioned the efficiency of it, but this is how my brain works. This method allows me to never get bored with the story and keep it fresh and interesting. In Grave Touched’s first draft, I made a huge discovery about one of the characters about a third of the way in. Didn’t plan it. It just…happened. And for me, that’s the magic of it.
But it also creates a problem for me. I have several drafts on my hard drive. All are good, promising stories. But the work involved tends to scare me (I even have one that’s in twelve pieces. Don’t ask. I had to take desperate measures when things got stuck. It does happen sometimes). And, unfortunately, I tend to ignore them. While they pile up. I have a few I even want to submit to traditional publishers. But…the work. Oh, the work.
Part of my discovery from Holly Lisle’s How to Motivate Yourself workshop was a huge load of fear. With novel revisions, it’s not just a fear of all that work. It’s also what I call the “Rewrite Terrors.” Simply put, it’s the fear of fubaring a story worse in rewrite/revision. It’s real. And it sucks.
Some people say that the real fun begins when revising and editing, that you’re making the book better (I’m looking at you, KD!). I can get behind that notion — in my head. But in my heart, it bleeds. All those words. But it’s important. I could never let anyone see a first draft. It sucks — and that’s okay, because I will make it better in revision.
So one of the things I committed to in that class was to do more novel revision as opposed to piling up more rough drafts. Honestly? It’s been tough. Drafting to me is like flying. It is effortless and wonderful and perfect. And to a degree, I crave that. So telling myself that I can only work on novel revisions for the foreseeable future is kind of tough. (I can, however, write a first draft concurrently with a revision). But it’s so important because if I don’t revise these kick-butt novels, they will never see the light of day.
I am committing to it again today: I am currently working on Grave Touched, which is on a deadline. It’s both editing and rewriting, and it’s top priority. If I can possibly have enough brainz to work on a second project (been trying to forever), it will be on a revision, not a first draft.
So maybe, just maybe, you’ll see one of them on the shelves. Better get crackin’!