Work Lunch Musings

Understandably, my weekend posts will be shorter.  Because I gots shit to do, man.

I worked on a good portion of that chapter I needed to completely rewrite and, as tends to happen, I discovered that while some of my basic concepts were good, they weren't presented in the right way.  Once I adjusted things to align with the main character better, I found the book was better for it.  Things I wanted to touch on naturally found their way in and instead of fighting against the nature of the character and scene, the process found unexpected ways to set me up where I should be.  It was nice, and honestly, I like the new stuff infinitely better than the old.

I had lunch with my sister yesterday, who is also a writer, and enjoyed getting to "talk shop" about where we were in our books.  I'm very proud of her; she already has a legitimate agent anxiously requesting to see her stuff.  Very cool.  But these conversations, always edifying anyway, help to amp me up and return to the work.

One of the things we discussed was about our revision method.  Thus far I have (aside from all the deep plot changes, technology, world building and character arc stuff that is necessary) tried to focus on two guiding principals as I revise, chapter by chapter:

1. If it's not something you would be excited about reading, it needs to go.  
I know it is inherently true that if I dislike what I'm writing, find it boring or am going through the motions, I cannot expect a reader to enjoy it.  This is sort of fun because it allows me really amp up scenes sometimes, setting them in cool locals, create unique situations or flesh out the world a bit further.  Asking myself that first question creates a lot of backstory to the world this takes place in that I wouldn't have otherwise.

2. How does this advance the story?
The second question keeps me moving forward to the end goal.  I tend to write rambling and aimless scenes, or worse repetitive scenes, mimicking previous chapters.  It is weirdly simple for me to fall into this trap and continually asking this question forces me to boil down why the scene is in the book.  If it isn't helping, it doesn't need to be there.  The style of this book in particular is a pulpy action thriller, so brevity and straightforwardness have been my truest companions.  These questions are hardly new, but I feel like they're keeping on track to a readable novel.

As the book becomes harder to write, the more other projects beckon to me.  So far I've been fairly good about shutting it down and telling myself I am not allowed to work on another novel (no matter how much it calls to me) until I am finished with this one.  I'm in one such hard stage now, and the next piece calls to me with a siren's song.

I have an end in sight though!  I will finish this (3rd) draft, then give it to my writing group, and some beta readers to critique and give feedback (scary).  With their notes in hand, I will give this one more polish, adjusting language, and major and minor issues that are brought to the table via peer review.  At that point, I just don't think I can improve upon it until I am A) further along in my career or B) without an editor to delve further in.  So I will try to shop it.  While doing that, the next novel will get worked upon.

No doubt the moment I start that work, a third will present itself and demand attention.