Strikethru: The six-month second draft: a challenge

Sunday, March 15, 2009

The six-month second draft: a challenge

13 comments:

Anonymous said...: Cheryl,
I asked my fountain pens (Pelikans) if they had seen yours. They haven't but will keep their eyes open.

Revising WriMo: Don't make yourself crazy. If it is too difficult to revise, and it may be, do your outline without thinking about the existing text. Just keep the original idea that appealed to you in the first place. Then incorporate any parts you have already written if and where they can be used. I bet there will be more of them than you realize now. My WriMo effort last year produced 50K+ words of mostly crap as far as a decent story goes. But there are usable gems hiding in the muck and I'll pluck them out when I can.

Don't be afraid to veer off if that's where your mind goes. The first novel I ever completed started out as a three page prologue to a different story. 350 pages later and I never did get back to the original idea.

Jeff; March 16, 2009 7:06 AM
Mike Speegle said...: I can't rightly say that I've actually finished my first draft, but as soon as I start on my second and revolutionize the process, I'll be sure to give you a heads up.

As far as the journal goes, I'd like to do some short fiction, but I'll also do anything assigned. Put me in, Coach, I'm ready.; March 16, 2009 10:17 AM
Strikethru said...: Look alive, Speegle. You're off the bench. (is this what coaches say? I am kind of sports-challenged). How about 1 - 2 8x11 pages of flash fiction?

We'll just get the submissions completed, and then figure out what the heck to do with them after that.; March 16, 2009 11:01 AM
Mike Speegle said...: Oh my gosh I am nervous.

That being said, is there some sort of thematic bent you want me to follow, or should I freestyle?; March 16, 2009 4:12 PM
Mike Speegle said...: Nevermind. I gots it.; March 17, 2009 8:25 AM
mpclemens said...: Weiner dogs, wine, and chickens. I like your doodles.

What's working for my second draft? Ignoring it so far seems great, it's never gone more smoothly! Of course, I'm not getting anywhere near complete, but hey...

My suggestion is that you really do need to outline. I'd do this with a stack of blank 3x5 cards, a nice pen (gotta find those lost ones), and perhaps a strengthening Adult Beverage. Take manuscript in hand, pen and cards in other -- the beverage may require a straw, come to think of it -- and summarize a bit of your draft on the card. Just a single small scene or moment, nothing more. Repeat. Don't judge the scenes, or edit them out yet, just get them written in a synopsis form. Tell yourself you only need to do /some small number/ of cards right now, like five. Tackle just that.

When you run out of draft, start arranging your cards out into piles or rows or whatever you like, trying to group together the bits of the story into something cohesive, and hopefully showing you where you've got gaps.

This is the process I used to get my semi-outline together before the novel, and it really did help. Since I wasn't really re-writing an outline -- just shuffling cards -- it didn't feel like too much work. If I thought of something to add to the story (which happened often) I just noted it on a card and tossed it into the appropriate pile.

Right now I just look at my draft and think, Oh Dear God, I can't really sit down and revise this whole thing. So I really need to chunk it out into smaller parts. I'll probably right the page references on the backs of the cards as I go, so I'll know where a scene originally came from in case I need to mine it for actual dialog and such, but even going in with a dialog at the start didn't protect me from the accumulated Poo Factor of a random, blathering NaNo draft. I don't see there being much point in refining something loose until there's a framework to hang it on.; March 17, 2009 11:06 AM
mpclemens said...: "even going in with an OUTLINE at first didn't protect me"

Language-challenged due to a head full of cold medication. Pls excuse.; March 17, 2009 11:11 AM
Baloo said...: I tried outlines for 5 years, and got butkiss out of it. I finally started to write, and after a couple of false starts, and realizing I started my story in the wrong place, I started over this Nov. 1, 2008. Last week I finished it.

I found the story took on a life of its own, with an ending that surprised me, and thankfully better then I was originally thinking.

I started revising this weekend. For me it has been a matter of completely re-writing the whole thing from start to finish, because I did the original on my typewriters. I am using my Neo for the re-writing, and so far the changes are great. I might actually end up with something worth reading.

My advice is to write. It's a job that requires butt glue, and persistence. Just remember we in this electronic age have it easy to change things. The typewriter have shown me that. I am also thankful for my Neo, for like the typewriter, there is no distractions, which I can't say for this conferno contraption.

E.J. Bear; March 18, 2009 9:35 PM
Strikethru said...: Thanks for the advice about how to tackle the second draft-- really helpful. Giving me good information about whether an outline might work for me or not. I am thinking that a very high-level outline might help me insert or rearrange scenes, but that in the end, writing is what is going to get the thing written.

Butt glue indeed. That is exactly what you need to do something like this. I gotta get a routine!; March 18, 2009 9:59 PM
mpclemens said...: There's no avoiding the writing when something needs to be, you know... rewritten. I'm learning that one the hard way.

Pass the glue, won'tcha?; March 19, 2009 3:57 PM
Mariano said...: Hi Cheryl,
I don't know how "private" your blog is, but I typecast and thus have been inspired by your blog for some time. Anyhow, suggestions. What helped me this winter with a novel I'm writing was to write abstracts. One for the entire story which I use as a sort of indelible mission statement out of which chapter and character abstracts flow: "A story about a Lithuanian immigrant who travels to Chicago with his family to work in the unskilled-labor force of the meatpackers at the turn of the XX century. He experiences the horrors of Trust-Capitalism and discovers hope in socialism...etc."(The Jungle) you get the point.
Then I write out a similar abstract for each chapter and treat each chapter as it's own short-ish story.
Then I use the free software "Writer's Cafe" (http://www.writerscafe.co.uk/) to organize the plot lines, etc. This is key and an awesome program for long, complicated manuscripts.
I'm somewhat new to being serious about fiction as I'm in the MFA applications process and in the middle of a couple novel manuscripts. But, I have been writing video scripts and PR for years and worked as a journalist before that. Hope this helps.; March 24, 2009 7:56 PM
Strikethru said...: Mariano, it's a public blog, as far as I'm concerned :-)

I like the idea of using abstracts. I don't think I've spent enough time on that kind of thing--particularly thinking about the lives of characters outside of a story. I am sure an abstract would help with that.; March 25, 2009 12:12 AM
Teri said...: The second draft (still in progress) is much different from the original nano. I just took the things I liked and basically rewrote it. Still working on it, if my life will ever settle down. Carolyn See's book on the writing life has some good ideas on dealing with re-writes. It involves a lot of wine, if I remember right ;); March 25, 2009 4:12 PM

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