Now that Book 1 is officially done, it's time to revise it.
But I also have all of these ideas for book 2!
I've always been of the belief that there needs to be time for an author to forget what he/she wrote in draft 1 to have an objectiveness that is needed for the revision and editing process. So that's what I'm going to do... step back to gain perspective and clarity.
I also have these ideas for book 2 that I MUST WRITE DOWN before I forget them. Once I get the notes down and into an arc, I'll have given book 1 enough time to rest. The added bonus of knowing what's in store for book 2 will guide my development of the plot holes I know that I will find in book 1.
I'm all of my years of training in writing, in creative writing, I've heard the mantra "show, don't tell" so many times that I sometimes would mumble it in my sleep as stacks of handwritten journals and sheaves of printed text come tumbling down around me. (I exaggerate, but not by much). It was never discussed in any of my classes that is was OK to tell the story first, then show it by the time you had a draft that you were ready for people to read and critique. It feels refreshing and free to quickly tell the story, then go back and "show" it instead.
So I'm going to see if I can write Book 2 (at least 50K words of it) between Dec 22 and Jan 6. That gives me about 2 weeks to do full time in what took me 4 weeks while working. Between now and then, I will brainstorm, outline, and research. And when I'm tired of doing that, I'll revise portions of book 1.
Now, for some coffee.
I am excited to read it when you are ready.... which brings me to the question. When will you be ready? now? after the second draft? third?
ReplyDeleteAfter the second draft. Right now, I have notes like "needs some kind of scene transition here" and "this is where X and Y interacts in this way to create more conflict", and "needs more here to show [character x's growth" or "needs scene to explain why X would trust y" instead of actual scenes/dialog/exposition. That was the only way I could get past the roadblock to the scene/dialog/exposition that was ready to come out of my head.
ReplyDeleteOnce I plug those holes and flesh things out I'll be ready to show. I don't need eyes to see the stuff that's blindingly obvious, but stuff that I didn't consider/see while writing the draft. The more subtle and hard to do things likes establishing a clear, distinct, and consistent voice for each character that needs substantial depth - will happen in drafts 3 and 4, I believe.