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dotsandlinesIt's early, but I'm about to start trying to make major plot changes, so I wanted to get a before & after (or at least before & later) snapshot.
I haven't written much in actual word count, but I am on an unholy crusade to find and fix underlying plot / character issues. Already I have a bunch of ideas that will necessitate some rewrites, so I decided that I should decide on as many major changes as possible and just do all of the rewrites at once. (If I change a character's country of origin, career goals and family structure, that's three rounds of rewrites...or just one.)
I love me some retcon, but this will take forever if I am constantly pulling up the track.
I started a document literally titled Things That Bother Me, and that's what it lists. What bugs me, and how to fix it. Unfortunate implications. ("So if character Y goes into town and the barn burns down while she's gone, it looks like divine retribution. Oops.") Glossed-over plot points. Handwaving. Stuff I never got around to explaining. Things that were patched together in order to make the story continue, even if they don't make sense if you think about them too hard. (Why did our engines just fail? Go ahead and babble something about asteroids or neutrinos, but the actual answer is "the plot made our engines fail." I am trying to locate and change moments like that. ...I'm not writing science fiction, but my point stands.)
I'm not trying to be self-defeating; I'm trying to see things from different angles and build a better (more sense-making, more insightful, better-constructed) story. As though my inner critic were awesome and constructive and supportive, but still kicking every metaphorical tire.
Things that bother me! No reason whatsoever for characters A and B to have dated in high school. They make much better BFFs with half the angst. Done. What would B have been doing with his time instead? OK, character C then. A new influence on one of our major narrators. Ripple effects on B's attitudes from there on out. Also, since A and B didn't have a sad breakup at graduation, they are still exchanging letters from time to time. So now A is still in the story instead of gracefully exiting in chapter 12. What is she doing with her life now? I never figured that out.
...this is why this book would never be published by the big leagues. ;)
More stuff like that. Outlining, and taking a step back to squint. Why does that happen, other than "it makes the story go" or "that's how I wrote it 10 years ago"? Take nothing for granted. Already I have a different beast than I started with, 13 years ago or even 1 year ago. It's a long process, but I want to try to get this layer in order right now. Or at least as good of an order as I can muster right now.
Oh, and FIXING NAMES. Most of the major names are from very early drafts, and many of the minor ones are little more than placeholders. I have a serious Aerith and Bob problem. I'm trying to make a canonical list of every character name by (fictional) national origin, and then align them so that they make some sort of sense.
Then...glorious rewrites. OK, data backup on multiple media, maybe a round of historical research*, and then glorious rewrites.
* not that I'm setting this in reality, either. But I feel as though I could glean interesting ideas from the way things actually were, instead of making things up entirely out of nowhere. And/or play off of real-world analogues.
Anyway, that's what I'm up to. Counts!
Words: 146,546 (+1883) (not counting notes anymore at all)
Pages: 278
There was a new half-scene or so in there somewhere. Still, I would count this as the Before snapshot.
I haven't written much in actual word count, but I am on an unholy crusade to find and fix underlying plot / character issues. Already I have a bunch of ideas that will necessitate some rewrites, so I decided that I should decide on as many major changes as possible and just do all of the rewrites at once. (If I change a character's country of origin, career goals and family structure, that's three rounds of rewrites...or just one.)
I love me some retcon, but this will take forever if I am constantly pulling up the track.
I started a document literally titled Things That Bother Me, and that's what it lists. What bugs me, and how to fix it. Unfortunate implications. ("So if character Y goes into town and the barn burns down while she's gone, it looks like divine retribution. Oops.") Glossed-over plot points. Handwaving. Stuff I never got around to explaining. Things that were patched together in order to make the story continue, even if they don't make sense if you think about them too hard. (Why did our engines just fail? Go ahead and babble something about asteroids or neutrinos, but the actual answer is "the plot made our engines fail." I am trying to locate and change moments like that. ...I'm not writing science fiction, but my point stands.)
I'm not trying to be self-defeating; I'm trying to see things from different angles and build a better (more sense-making, more insightful, better-constructed) story. As though my inner critic were awesome and constructive and supportive, but still kicking every metaphorical tire.
Things that bother me! No reason whatsoever for characters A and B to have dated in high school. They make much better BFFs with half the angst. Done. What would B have been doing with his time instead? OK, character C then. A new influence on one of our major narrators. Ripple effects on B's attitudes from there on out. Also, since A and B didn't have a sad breakup at graduation, they are still exchanging letters from time to time. So now A is still in the story instead of gracefully exiting in chapter 12. What is she doing with her life now? I never figured that out.
...this is why this book would never be published by the big leagues. ;)
More stuff like that. Outlining, and taking a step back to squint. Why does that happen, other than "it makes the story go" or "that's how I wrote it 10 years ago"? Take nothing for granted. Already I have a different beast than I started with, 13 years ago or even 1 year ago. It's a long process, but I want to try to get this layer in order right now. Or at least as good of an order as I can muster right now.
Oh, and FIXING NAMES. Most of the major names are from very early drafts, and many of the minor ones are little more than placeholders. I have a serious Aerith and Bob problem. I'm trying to make a canonical list of every character name by (fictional) national origin, and then align them so that they make some sort of sense.
Then...glorious rewrites. OK, data backup on multiple media, maybe a round of historical research*, and then glorious rewrites.
* not that I'm setting this in reality, either. But I feel as though I could glean interesting ideas from the way things actually were, instead of making things up entirely out of nowhere. And/or play off of real-world analogues.
Anyway, that's what I'm up to. Counts!
Words: 146,546 (+1883) (not counting notes anymore at all)
Pages: 278
There was a new half-scene or so in there somewhere. Still, I would count this as the Before snapshot.
