Been away from the blog for a while but not from the novel. As it is, it’s been slow and laborious. Realization can be slow and laborious as well, and it finally occurred to me that revisions are like travelling unexplored territory if it isn’t something you’ve done before. Well, it just so happens a whole bunch of other writers have, and while their advice can make for great markers in this crazy process, there is no definitive map because the novel I’m writing hasn’t been written before. The themes may have been done before, but this particular story hasn’t.
Basically, the difficulty I’m having has to do with not being able to see the novel in smaller, manageable units. I am essentially re-arranging timelines and changing chapter divisions, so no wonder it’s getting difficult to navigate the text. No wonder I’m getting lost. And the time it’s taking to make these revisions is starting to be a concern, because working within time restraints is a skill that will facilitate any changes requested by editors and agents.
The solution finally occurred to me the other day. My husband and I are currently getting ready to fly to London, England for six days as the first part of our yearly vacation and to attend a wedding. After locating our London street maps and tucking them away in a folder along with our flight itineraries and Wicked tickets, it occured to me that if you don’t know how to get around a city, you buy a street map. How was my novel any different?
Well, for starters, I’m the one who created the initial manuscript. Certainly the plot outline I created for the first draft could very well be that map, except that I didn’t outline the novel in full or in detail. Even if I had, chances are the final first draft might not reflect that outline. Essentially, I am the one who created the story so its up to me to go through it and map it out as it currently is.
This isn’t a new idea when it comes to the revision process. I’ve read about reading through the first draft and analyzing every scene for its key components, except this isn’t my issue. In fact, my map doesn’t need to be that specific. The looser, the better, and that isn’t a reflection of my personality… no, really… okay, maybe a little.
The map just needs to be brief sentences outlining key events. Not even full sentences. Just a few words. Anything to jog my memory of where important landmarks in the novel occur, so that I can get a quick bird’s eye view of the entire story without having to read through pages of text. I know some similar systems like to document whether these smaller units contain the conflict or are a complete scene or follow a change-reaction-action pattern, but that is something I will examine closer while making revisions. It’s moving around a constantly evolving manuscript that is becoming problematic, page numbers documented or not.
Once the map is complete, I’ll be able to review the events, rearrange them into new sequences, isolate a series of events into chapter sections, as well as determine which sections can be told from a second point of view, instead of trudging through the detailed text of the second draft manuscript. It definitely is not a perfect system, but completing a novel isn’t about perfection, it’s about closure by any means necessary.
While there are a lot of great guides and advice out there, sometimes its good to just sit down and work out your own system, even if it’s a bit flawed.
