Writing.
Kettle corn.
Tessa on the air conditioner.
Bucket on the floor.
Posts Tagged ‘revisionland’
re-visioning
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010
This post is going to be about revising. It will not be anywhere near as good as this post about revising, but I figured I’d give it a whirl anyway. I’ve gotten fairly familiar with how this process works for me, and as you all know by now, ’tis the summer of revision around here.
I started with my agent notes, both e-mailed and scrawled in my almost-illegible handwriting from a phone call. I read them. I re-read them. I highlighted specific things that really jumped out at me.
I talked to two of my dearest betas about it. I wrote down what they had to say. I read & re-read.
I pulled out my old notebooks, ones that dated back to ’08, and looked for things that I hadn’t used that I might be able to work with now. I pulled out a couple of pages worth of notes.
I took all of these notes, from agent and betas and the 2008 version of me, and transcribed the stuff I found most useful into a new notebook.
I started adding snippets of new scenes, bits of dialogue, hypothetical questions.
I made a gigantic timeline. I got a dry erase board to hang by the desk. So far it just looks cool and office-y, but I’m sure it’ll come in handy later.
I had more discussions with betas. I started having revelations. I began pulling possibilities from lists of ideas.
Now, I’m taking all of this stuff and developing it into full scenes. I’ve hit the writing stage, the really writing stage, after several weeks of this pre-writing process.
So far, I have not once looked back at the previous draft.
Why? Well, I already know what’s there. What I need is what’s *not* there yet, so I’m finding those things elsewhere, in notes and conversations and daydreams and at the bottom of cups of tea.
So I can take the new and layer it back over the old.
I’ve come to realize that I need to see it in my head as a different book, first. I have to find the shape of the new draft before I can mold the old draft into it. I can’t just go into the old draft and start pushing it around and filling in holes.
I have to develop the new draft and then work backwards. I need that picture, that vision of the new version, in order to get there.
This is how I revise. I have to get to the point where my brain can see where I’m going, and then it’s just a matter of writing to get there.
That’s not to say I know exactly how to get there, there are still hic sunt dracones parts of the map, but there is something resembling a map now.
I just got this beautiful book of Jerry Uelsmann photography. He does these gorgeous layered photos, made with multiple negatives in a darkroom, nothing digital.
It’s amazing stuff, and being in the head space that I’m in right now, it’s reminding me of how I revise. I’m finding new images to layer over the old ones. Not to obscure what was there before, but to elevate it into something else.
summer in the revisionland hotel
Thursday, June 10th, 2010
I have extensive notes from my agent (my agent, yay!) in hand and I am gearing up to spend the next several weeks in the Revisionland Hotel. A summer of tiki torch nights and umbrella drinks and writing writing writing.
And it will be writing writing writing, because more than “change this, take out that” which might be nice and simple in comparison, for this next round of revising I get to dig deeper and add more and elaborate on what I have already.
Eep.
It is a combination of daunting and exhilarating. And I’m not sure how to do it yet, but I’ll figure it out.
So I am taking my own notes and pondering and mulling and trying to get things done while I note-take and ponder and mull, like the paintings I can finally start on because I have black paint again, and reading other people’s books (go read Rock Paper Tiger ASAP, it is marvelous and compelling and it will make you crave dumplings).
And today I got my latest BPAL order, which is always a happy occasion. I have moths & butterflies (bottles of Gypsy: Bourbon vanilla, Egyptian musk, tonka, white sugar, and cardamom & Paper Kite: Coconut, white sugar, angelica, and black pepper) and a Vanilla-based Chaos Theory, #95 to be exact.
Trying the chaos first. Beyond the clear vanilla the mystery notes are remaining mysterious. I think there might be white musk in there somewhere, but I’m not entirely sure. Overall, it is this gorgeously blended scent that’s bright and warm and creamy, even the vanilla that was so obvious in the bottle has calmed and faded into the background as a steady undercurrent.
And while I’m sitting here huffing at my wrists, I realize this is what the book needs.
The base notes are there. Maybe some of those bright top notes, too. But it’s those nuanced middle notes that take it from “that smells like vanilla” to “ooooooooh, what is that?” that it needs now. The in-betweens that tie everything together and make it richer as a whole.
Because I can make writing analogies about anything.
post-revisionland
Monday, May 10th, 2010
And revisions are done. Beta-ed, adjusted again, re-beta-ed & polished to a high shine.
It is almost disgusting how much better it is than the last draft. Seriously.
I’m not leaving the Revisionland Hotel because I have too many friends here and I like the bar. But I’m done. Done done done.
Sending the New & Improved version back to agents first thing tomorrow. Kind of baffled that I’ve finally reached this point.
Anyway, while I was unplugged last week I did mostly nothing but rewrite and rework and make good sentences great and listen to so much Pandora radio (Arcade Fire station) that I blew my 40 free hours for the month. Might have to invest in fancypants Pandora.
Y’all were also spared a rant about last week’s LOST. Um, I still love it like candy but that episode made me mad. Like, livid, throwing things mad. And not just because I love Frank. Sigh. Am nervous about the rest of the season. I didn’t think they’d be able to lose me at this point, but now I’m kind of concerned.
I also started knitting a new scarf, because nothing says spring like new scarves.
Not sure what I’m going to do with myself once this thing is out of my hands again. Reading & yoga, most likely. For now I have champagne sorbet.
unplugging again
Monday, May 3rd, 2010
I am sequestering myself in the Revisionland Hotel this week.
I am very close to done with my additional, post-beta reader revisions. I am extremely pleased with all the changes so far, and what’s left is all sorts of thoughtful detail stuff. I’ve rebuilt the entire room and now I have to finalize the window treatments and upholstery and possibly move that one chair into the other corner where it will get better light.
Excuse me whilst I make interior decorating analogies about writing.
Anyway, in order to focus on revisions I am taking the week off from the internet.
I will be checking my e-mail if you need me for anything.
I will be back on Friday with this week’s flax-golden tale.
I hope y’all have lovely weeks!
<3
e.
cake & kitten
Monday, April 5th, 2010
Other than the fact that I am still coughing, after over a month of lingering chest cold, this weekend was lovely and springy.
Not really knowing what to do with myself now that I am out of Revisionland for the moment, I thought I would bake muffins. But then I couldn’t find poppy seeds and I really, really wanted lemon poppy muffins. So while I wandered dejected and sad-faced through Whole Foods, the boy & I stumbled upon a tower of bundt cakes, and one of them was lemon with this lovely drippy icing and white chocolate shavings on top and we decided it was like muffins, but better.
So we pretty much ate lemon bundt cake all weekend in the sunshine.
It was really good. Likely better than any thwarted muffin attempt.
While I had the camera out I tried to take photos of Tessa, and while she is usually a very photogenic kitten she was not particularly obliging this time.
I set this photo as the wallpaper on the iMac and I keep laughing maniacally at it. I think this was actually mid-tail-lick rather than proper yawn.
I spent the cake-less, kitten-less hours of the weekend reading and cleaning the studio while the boy read the new revisions. Other than some minor things that still need tweaking, he really likes the major changes so that’s good. He’s read like, every incarnation of this thing and he’s a Virgo so I’m going to take that as a sign that I’m on the right track. Still have it out with other beta readers, so I’m going to try not to obsess over it while I wait and actually get other, non-revising things done for a change.
Also, my windows are open and it is sunshiny and that is happy-making.
tales from the revisionland hotel
Thursday, April 1st, 2010
I’ve been missing in action because I’ve been sequestered in the Revisionland Hotel.
It’s a lovely place, really. The bar is lively and full of characters and complimentary beverages of questionable content. Room service brings pens and paper, chocolate and caffeine.
I’ve been here so long I started managing the place. I wish I was kidding.
But really, I knew I was going to have to rip my manuscript apart and rework it heavily in November.
I took November off to write the first draft of a different novel.
I took December mostly off because it was holiday-ridden and cold.
I started working on it, really working on it and not just thinking about it and jotting down notes, in January.
It’s going to be done tomorrow. This is not an April Fool.
I still have a few things to change and I think I need to adjust the end a bit, but it’s novel-shaped again and I think it’s shaped like a better novel than it was before, but I need some second opinions.
Sometime tomorrow this massive overhaul of a revision will be sent off to the wonderful world of beta readers.
Once they have it I think I’ll be hanging out in the Hotel bar for awhile.
this is kyle cassidy’s fault
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010
I don’t actually know Kyle Cassidy but I admire his photography and I read his blog and I covet his coffin coffee table.
A few weeks back he held a contest on his blog giving away some of his fountain pens to penless writers, and to participate you had to take photos of your journals or whatnot & post a sample of your writing.
I thought, Hey, I’m a fountain penless writer! When I write by hand I write in Sharpie!
And then I thought, I am way too shy for this.
Then I said to myself, Erin, why don’t you find an alternative method of procuring a fountain pen if you really want one? Because sometimes I can be quite logical.
But of course I wanted a vintage one, because old things have more story in them and vintage pens seem inherently cooler and more writerly than shiny new ones.
So not really knowing where else to look, I did an Etsy vintage search and happened upon a very cheap, condition unknown green Esterbrook J series fountain pen that had been found at an estate sale. I went ahead and ordered it, thinking it would probably need massive overhaul and wondering what kind of seedy world of vintage pen afficionados I was getting myself into.
Pen arrived with a fair amount of dried blue ink but once it was cleaned and re-inked (in grey, because I became instantly enamored with the idea of writing in grey ink rather than blue or black or sienna or whatnot) it was in perfect working order.
I am now wondering why I had never thought to get a fountain pen before because it is brilliant and magical. I don’t know the history of this particular pen prior to its ending up on Etsy, but I know it’s older than me by a fair amount and it likely had its fair share of adventures before it ended up here in Salem, writing down revision notes about nocturnal circuses.
Within days of writing with it I reworked the entire ending of the revised version of the novel and untangled several troublesome plot points. If this thing ever gets published, remind me to thank Kyle Cassidy in the acknowledgments.
unplugged productivity & a kitty in the sunshine
Monday, March 8th, 2010
Things I accomplished in my week of little-to-no internets, an unnumbered list.
- Finished knitting the huge, boa-esque scarf that I have been working on for ages. Photos forthcoming. Of course, now that it is finished it is too warm outside to wear it. I have lousy knitting karma.
- Read Shaun Tan’s Tales From Outer Suburbia on recommendation from Carey. I was a Tan fan already but this book is lovely bits of whimsical wonderment and I loved it to pieces. A perfect blend of words & pictures. This is going to be one of those books I read over & over, I can tell.
- Managed to get a whole lot of revising done, including reworking a large part of the ending. I came up with the changes while completely hopped up on Sudafed and unable to breathe properly, but so far they still seem to work. Draft is still a mess, but it’s starting to look novel-shaped again. Sort of. If you squint.
- Did not manage to properly get rid of this stupid cold. Am mostly better, but still congested. It is the cold that will not die no matter how much tea and vitamin C I give it. It makes me sad. *cough*
In other news, it’s disturbingly spring-like here. We had the windows open yesterday. It kind of freaked me out.
Tessa is enjoying the sunshine.
