And the revision begins… I might need more coffee for this
Posted by H. Conrad Miller on January 18, 2013 · 4 Comments
I am finally getting started on my rewrites for Max Bear: The Case of the Queen Bee. This is a rough draft that I wrote last year for NaNoWriMo after about six months of research, plotting and outlining. And like many of my other first drafts I found myself about half way through diverging from my original outline as I followed where the story needed to go and flowed towards. This produced a much different story in my head and on the paper. And thus the manuscript I am walking into revisions with is going to be chopped to pieces and possibly completely rewritten. But you know what? I am thrilled about it.
While this story is going to need a lot of work it is like a house with good bones. It might not be the prettiest sight right now. There are some walls that need to be taken out. There are rooms with horribly colored paint. The patio isn’t finish. And we might just need to add an addition on the back. But this story has what it needs. It has the starting point, good structure and a good foundation. The advantage is that unlike the rough draft I can see what is strong and what is weak. I can see what is wrong with my first draft and I can make it better.
So where to start? First and foremost I need to read my rough draft. I have let this is thing sit since November. I haven’t even cracked it open to glance at it. So I need to read it all the way through without doing anything other than ingesting the story both good and bad parts. I figure that is going to help me solidify where the second draft will go and how it will diverge from the bad parts of the first draft while building upon the good things that are being kept.
From there starts the review with notes and reworking the outline. There are characters that need to be fleshed out and some that need to either be introduced into the second draft or removed from it. The villain has a much more robust image in my head and that will help solidify the storyline. Like I said, this story has great bones. But I feel like stripping it down to those bones and rewriting everything is going to give me the best results. There is also the question of bringing in a buttload (which is a legitimate measurement with naval origins) of description as I tend to write my first draft with very sparse descriptions.
After all this is said and done we will see where I am at. I think that the next step will be beta readers but who knows. If any of you have suggestions on first round revisions please post them in the comments below. I would greatly appreciate them.
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Filed under Revisions, Writing · Tagged with Revisions, second draft, stories with good bones, Writing
Good luck with the re-write. For me, that’s always the most fun aspect of the writing – polishing up the rough version. Not having read it since November is likely to be an positive, I suspect – the ‘stick the MS in a drawer’ advantage. You’ll see all kinds of things that weren’t obvious before, and wouldn’t have been obvious if you’d just finished th draft laft week. What emerges on the second round could be very different indeed from the way it is now – but it’s all positive.
Thanks for the comment. I totally agree with your thoughts on manuscript in the drawer for a while approach and I am hoping that it will have exactly that affect on my second draft. We will see.
Heh, I’m doing the same thing right now, revising my Nano rough draft. Good luck!
I think you’ve got a good plan. My first drafts tend to be similar. Get the bones down and use the next drafts to flesh things out. A good chance to read through and decide what’s missing, what needs changing. Good luck with it.