Like, ew.
The more years I spend writing, the less I expect of my first drafts and the more I rely on revisions to make things work. My most recent manuscript has been through three drafts. The first one blew. Positively blew. I set it aside for a month. The second draft showed some faint signs of life. I set it aside for a month. When I got ready to write the third draft, the story was becoming much realer in my head, so that I was kind of surprised to find that whole scenes had never actually gotten written but were represented by purple italic font saying <span style="color:purple"> they need to meet a dragon here or something. </span>
After the third draft I got that quiet, peaceful triumph you feel when you know you've finally written something pretty good. Now I'm getting ready to start on the fourth draft.
So what are you finding in your revisions these days? Here's what I'm mostly finding, other than the purple italic plague:
character
The character must grow and must change. The change has to be set up in the beginning-- both the need for it and the capability of it-- and has to occur in believable increments, not all at onceat the end.
I usually don't even know who my character is till near the end of the first draft, never mind how s/he's going to grow.
excess verbiage
Oh, the excess verbiage. There's no excuse for leaving something in just because I think it's exceptionally clever or well-written. If it doesn't advance story or character, bye-bye.
(When you get your story down to fighting trim, it's amazing how many other problems are solved automatically.)
inconsistencies
These are nasty and pernicious and take many revisions to get over. I make rules and promptly break them, have handicaps suddenly vanish, put things and characters in two different places at once, and of course always give a character two different names.
Even as late as the copy editing (when the story's been through a dozen or more drafts) I've found Saturday morning suddenly being Friday night, and a cornfield suddenly sprouting cotton.
How about you? What do you mostly find during revision, and what do you do about it?
Write On! will be a regular Thursday feature (8 pm ET) until it isn't. Be sure to check out other great lit'ry diaries like:
sarahnity's books by kossacks on Tuesdays
plf515's What Are You Reading? on Wednesday mornings.
cfk's bookflurries on Wednesday nights.
Your happy writing links for the week:
Here's another site where you can get your query critiqued.
More on writing query letters.
Editorial Anonymous on the perennial fear of having one's idea stolen.
Check your royalty statement.
The sudden discovery that ladies control the publishing industry has been causing no end of panic.
The Chizine Short Story Contest opens for entries on June 1st.
A writer shares 10 things that helped her get published. #1 surprised me.
How An iPad App Can Add Sizzle To Your Book
Anne Mini on improving opening pages and a contest to get your first page critiqued.
Never, ever sign anything with any agent or publisher whom you haven't checked out at Writer Beware or Preditors and Editors.
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