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| Noon: Rest from Work by Vincent van Gogh |
Three weeks to go before the June 11 deadline to submit work
and sign up for the AmradilloCon Writing Workshop. There is still time
to go through the entire boot camp program from the first post and
create a short story or novel chapter in order to participate. Consider
blocking off a few chunks in your schedule if you can, take a vacation day from
work, or bargain with your family for some “away” time and create your own mini
writer’s retreat.
If you’ve been following along with the program so far
you’ll have a rough draft in hand that has the essential elements of
characterization, plot, and worldbuilding in place. Now it’s time to give it a
rest. I firmly believe revising my own work effectively depends on my ability
to see it with new eyes. One of the best ways to do this is to put it aside for
a while. If no deadlines are involved, I find a week or two to be ideal, but
even putting something down for 24 hours can be immensely helpful.
In this post, I’m going to talk about both resting and your
next revision. Because, as I mentioned before, there’s no rule against
submitting your work early!
For me looking away from my current writing project is just
as important as the time I spend focused on it. If, like me, you have a few
pieces in various stages of completion resting one piece means that you can
turn your attention to a different one for a while. If you don’t have anything
else on deck, then spend a day or two with your reading. If you’re working on a
short story, pull up some short stories online (see the fiction links in my sidebar for a start). If you’re working on a
novel chapter, read the first chapters of the novels in your bookcase or at
your local library or go to Amazon and preview a bunch of first chapters.
Resting, in this case is, more like what happens when bread
dough “rests.” After activating the yeast and kneading the dough a baker covers
it and lets it rest. But a lot is happening under that kitchen towel. While the
baker is attending to other things, the yeast ferments, the dough expands and
the final loaf’s signature flavor and texture are formed. When the baker
returns to the dough, it is something different. For writing the transformation
takes place in your head. Your subconscious is always percolating themes and
ideas and this process doesn’t stop during revision. Time away from your piece
can give you space to solidify what is important about this story and what
elements might need to be enhanced or minimized in order to refine it.
After you’ve given your piece a rest, read through it again.
If you feel that everything is roughly in place then it’s time to start
refining your piece with a more granular revision. (If, on your read through
you find a logic problem or plot hole, go ahead and excise or plaster in some
words or a scene before you go on to the next step – all of these revision
stages can be repeated as needed.) If you’re ready to refine what you have,
here are some things to focus on:
Transitions
These are the breaks between scenes, changes in location,
point of view, or gaps in time in the story. An extra space, a short line of
asterisks, or a transitional sentence can mark these changes. Generally, I find
that too many transitional separators are often a sign that the story
(especially one limited to 5,000 words) is perhaps trying to paint on too large
of a canvas. If you have a lot of disjointed scenes, consider scaling your
story down, e.g. by narrowing the amount of time it covers or number of characters.
When I write a first draft, I can be pretty lazy about writing transitions
between scenes, this draft is where I write those sentences that link adjacent
scenes together. If you are looking to write a story that is more conceptual or
is set in a vast time scale you can use alternative forms. For example, when I
wanted to write about all of the different ways we think about time, I did it as a list story.
Paragraphs
Once you’re happy with the way your story flows from one
scene to another, turn your attention to your paragraphs. A good paragraph,
like a good story, will have a beginning, middle, and end. It should progress
to a tiny resolution of it’s own. At times, for impact, you might want to have
a one sentence or one word paragraph.
Dialogue
Is tricky, because in fiction dialogue is not the same as
natural speech, which is often rambling and circular. Dialogue has to
accomplish something while looking like it isn’t, to be intentional without
appearing intentional. Dialogue often moves the plot, but it really shines by
revealing character. Employing dialect can work, but it is often more effective
to think in terms of individual habits of speech. Actors often do this when
creating character, think of how Lumbergh in Office Space almost always
starts off with a long, irritating “Yeah.” Try to give your main characters
unique speech patterns and check that all the dialogue is accomplishing
something, either moving the plot forward or revealing character (preferably a
little of both).
As you’re refining your piece the ultimate goal is to focus
it both structurally and for emotional impact. You’ll be surprised how much you
can dial up the conflict and drama of by making small adjustments at this
point.
Next week we’ll talk about the final polish, and working at
the sentence level for clarity and grace. There’ll be a bit about dun DUN dun! Grammar.
If you have any questions, put them in the comments and I’ll
address those too!
NOTICE: Diverse writers welcomed here!
Diversity is vital to speculative fiction. A genre centered on exploration and encountering the Other must include voices and visions from writers, readers and thinkers of all kinds.
This year the Armadillocon Writing Workshop has sponsored seats for writers of color! Visit the workshop page for more information and to fill out the sponsorship request form!
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