ah, nuts! (and the craft of revising)

Current work: Proofs of Norfolk Miscellany; nonfic; Medical
Listening to: Gary Allan, best of (like this a lot – thank you, lovely Biddy, for the recommendation)
Reading: next on TBR pile

I ran out of bird-food at the weekend. DH bought some more, but the squirrel doesn’t like it. In fact, the squirrel is immensely fed up because, in order to get to the fat balls (which he does like), he has to balance on the end of the water holder, do a bit of stretching, grab the fat-ball holder, and drag it to his little face.

Like this.

I called DH and son in to see this and it got a smile. Both are suffering from a lurgy and ear infection, so I am currently ministering with warm drinks, hot water bottles for painful ears, and nagging them to take their antibiotics on time. I had to nag them yesterday to go to the doctor – MEN! Scarily, son has all his father’s mannerisms, so when they were curled up on the sofa together yesterday it was a real mini-me moment.

Also had guitar today, so I’m back on the difficult Bach (and made a reasonable job of the Sor). I have a slightly scratchy throat (which had better NOT presage DH’s and son’s lurgy, because I Do Not Have Time For This), so I may give Dad’s visit a miss tomorrow. It’s completely unfair to visit people who are very vulnerable to infections – i.e. elderly residents of a nursing home – and risk spreading the lurgy. He’ll be disappointed, but am sure he would rather not get a sore throat. And I’m seeing him on Sunday, so hopefully the promise of roast beef and all the trimmings will cheer him up.

Oh, the revisions? Done. At least, this round. Last night, I had an epiphany about the last chapter of the book. It came to 17k of changes, in the end. So moving the bombshell to a later part of the book had rather a large knock-on effect. I think the book’s stronger for it, but I’m dreading second revisions.

Hmm. I suppose I ought to do a ‘craft’ post on revisions.

I hate them, because the crows of doubt go into overdrive.

However. They are necessary because, as an author, you’re often too close to the book to see that you’ve buried the diamonds under a layer of unnecessary grime (i.e. you’ve lost sight of the conflict). And sometimes there are diamonds you haven’t noticed, but your editor does – and points out that actually this would be a better diamond to polish than the one you did polish.

So how do I deal with revisions?

Firstly, I read the revision letter. My ed is very motivational, which helps – she understands that for many authors (especially me), revisions leads to an “I’m crap and I can’t write any more” feeling, so she points out what she really likes about the book in addition to what needs fixing – that helps a lot. She also knows how I work best: that I like to know what the problem is, and be left to fix it myself. (I have had editors in the past who’ve gone into great detail what the characters should do or say: to me, that feels like writing by numbers, and it isn’t my book any more. Not the way to get the best out of me.) Last book, I dropped the bombshell too late. This time, I dropped it too early – and my research showed a bit too much. And I needed more of a build-up to the characters growing and changing. And the ending didn’t feel strong enough: the secondaries took over, and the main characters needed to be more proactive in sorting the resolution.

Yeah, yeah. After writing 37 M&Bs (this was #38 – or my 11th Modern Heat), I should know better. But hey.

Sometimes I agree with what she says; sometimes I disagree and there’s an email ping-pong between me and my editor while we negotiate a compromise that works for both of us. Often I sleep on it and do the ping-pong bit the next day. She might make a suggestion that she knows will make me say no – but will also make me think more and come up with a different solution.

I’m a planner, so I once I know what I’m doing, I sit down and tackle the revisions.

When I write a book, I have lots of separate files. I have a folder for notes and pictures, and a folder for the first draft (because, let’s face it, hardly ANY books go through just one draft). In the ‘first draft’ folder I have:

• the outline (I list the conflict up front and then do a brief paragraph per chapter saying what happens);
• a timeline file (giving very brief details of when the action takes place/what happens in each chapter);
• a characters file (giving brief details of the characters – about three lines each for the hero and heroine, and half a line for everyone else: age, relationship to hero/heroine, and if it’s a Med I’ll also list their ailment)
• a separate file for each chapter
• a file for the whole manuscript (i.e. merged all the chapter files into one when I've finished, and added the front page and a dedication page before emailing it to my ed)

When I’m revising, I copy the ‘merged’ file into the ‘second draft’ folder and work with the whole manuscript rather than split it back into chapters.

I know from my revision letter what I need to fix, so I make notes to myself on the manuscript (e.g. ‘add xxx here’ or ‘rewrite from x’s point of view’).

Then I move anything that needs to be moved; and then I work through the manuscript from start to finish, taking account of my notes. I use the track changes facility on Word, so I can see what I put in and what I take out; and I highlight additions in bright yellow before I accept the changes. Swathes of yellow mean that I can summarise the changes quickly for my ed before taking the highlighter off and sending it to her.

And then it's a final readthrough to check for continuity - that the changes all match up.

Easy.

Oh, all right. Perhaps I should mention the blood, sweat and tears that go with this process. Talking out loud to myself or my characters. And time spent playing Scrabble Blast online while I’m mulling over how to fix something – halfway through a game you’ll hear me say, ‘Oh, duh, that’s OBVIOUS’ and I’ll flick back into Word and sort out the bit that had been giving me problems.

So. Revisions. Over for a little while.

On the meantime I have a piece to do for Writing Magazine (waves to lovely Rachel); the proofs of Norfolk Miscellany (which look good, and I am so pleased with the pics); writing the other nonfic that’s due at the end of this month; and writing the new Medical (due in a fortnight, but methinks that means the end of the month because we have to be reasonable about it).

As my squirrel would say – ah, nuts. This is hard work and a bit of a balancing act!