What I Learned Today

Yesterday, I tackled revisions from 1 p.m. to 11 p.m. I stopped for an hour to eat and a half hour to watch an episode of "Fringe" before I realized it was a rerun. (That's how tired I was.) Finally, I threw my hands up and called it a night.

Revising is a slow process, which does not come natural to me. Most of the time, I can compose quickly and when it comes to editing my work, I don't want it to lose that fire, that natural rhythm that comes when you allow yourself to write freely. So I edit slowly, making sure to keep the "personality" of the work, so I don't end up with something bland and boring.

Every drop of blood I spend on a word, on a sentence, chopping dialog, cutting out useless descriptions, adding specificity to the environment so it too shines, slicing sentences into two, helps bring my characters into full color. In the end, I'm hoping it'll all be worth it. My deadline is August 2009. That sounds like plenty of time but it means I've got to stay focused...and disciplined each day.

When I woke up this morning, I was rested but I was still distressed. I ate a quick breakfast and headed straight for the problem areas, the areas I said only needed to be "good enough." You can't settle for good enough. You've got to kick yourself in the pants. This is why, I reread Octavia E. Butler's essay "Furor Scribendi" this morning. She said: "Revise your writing until it's as good as you can make it. All the reading, the writing, and the classes should help you do this. Check your writing, your research (never neglect your research), and the physical appearance of your manuscript. Let nothing substandard slip through. If you notice something that needs fixing, fix it, no excuses. There will be plenty that's wrong that you won't catch. Don't make the mistake of ignoring flaws that are obvious to you. The moment you find yourself saying, 'This doesn't matter. It's good enough.' Stop. Go back. Fix the flaw. Make a habit of doing your best." (Butler, Bloodchild and Other Stories 2nd Ed., pp 140-141)

Butler is always right. I can't accept any less than my best. What I've done today is my best. I didn't throw up my hands and give up. I gave it my all. Each day, has to be like this. If so, I will see the work get better. Discipline.

The citizens of my city deserve nothing less.

Place and Time

My current WIP is a sci-fi/fantasy novel (no surprise) and in this story, time must be fluid. I know this because I've written the novel from beginning to end in a linear fashion. This did NOT work. In the revisions, I'm rewriting everything from scratch.

This is working well for me and I love the feeling I get not knowing exactly where time starts and ends as I write (this sense of fluidity relates to one of my novel's themes)...but I know that in the end, once I piece it all together, my readers won't appreciate not having a firm sense of time and place so I'm trying to figure things out before I move to the next section.

I haven't traveled much. As a kid, I visited Ohio every summer with my Granny. I LOVED Ohio, at least what I can remember of it as a kid. Naturally, I'm thinking of using this in the story. (I'm assuming Ohio gets really cold in the winter. It needs to be cold for the intro.)

Eventually, my characters move to Long Beach, California, which is where the majority of the story takes place. (Yet another reason why I'm having trouble picking a time and place for the opening--they aren't there long.)

What I think I'll do tonight is examine some of my favorite novels, take a look at the opening 3 pages to see how place and time is established in different ways. I don't want it to be overt. It needs to blend in with the landscape. I can't stand it when stories overtly dump information: this is what the character's eyes look like, this is the color of her hair, etc. I don't mind the info...it just needs to arise out of the moment for me not to get pulled out of the story.

How do others handle the necessary information that readers look for in the first five pages?

Okay--I'm off to do research!

Openings

I took a look at the first few lines of a half dozen books picked randomly from my shelf.

These are all books that I've read. I learned quickly that I wouldn't need to read the first three pages. These authors establish place and time within the very first line!

( Check it out. )

I’ve got some ideas for my next round of revisions. I won’t tackle them just yet. I need to rest and let my subconscious work it out tomorrow.