Samhain \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Winter Moon<\/p>\n
Put together a banker’s box of manuscripts used during the several revisions of Missing. That cleaned out a full shelf. \u00a0Back at Loki’s Children. \u00a0Listened to a fascinating BBC podcast on Norse mythology, organized my research. \u00a0There are these very different phases to writing a novel, for me at least.<\/p>\n
The first involves the idea beginning to grow, like sugar crystal building a new shape on a suspended piece of string. \u00a0The shapes are not uniform and they can look sharp. \u00a0Then research begins to consume the development time. \u00a0The crystals have now begun to build one on another and the whole string has some small, sweet projection. \u00a0At some point the research seems done. \u00a0The string is pulled out of the water.<\/p>\n
The second phase is more like a snake eating. \u00a0The research and the character ideas and the plot ideas somehow inform the fingers as they type, chewing up this piece of data, consuming that idea that seemed good, sliding the whole body around undigestable information. \u00a0This is the preliminary draft, perhaps the first draft or some less clear very early version. \u00a0It has to sit for awhile, like the snake in the sun, letting the warmth drive digestion.<\/p>\n
After this phase or the next one, which ever produces first draft, after the drawer (shelf in my case) has made those words less familiar, more removed, a first revision can occur. \u00a0At this point the story begins to become clearer, the characters take on more life. Occasionally, there’s the happy moment. \u00a0Hey, I wrote that. \u00a0Or, more often, there’s the oh, god, I wrote that moment. \u00a0Most of it is in between.<\/p>\n
After the rock crystal phase and the snake phase, comes the sculptural phase. \u00a0The first two phases are additive, like clay sculpture, where shape builds up on an armature or free form until the desired result. \u00a0This third phase, revision, is more like subtractive sculpture, where the artist removes wood or marble to, as Michelangelo’s cliche suggests, reveal the object already there. \u00a0It’s not exactly like subtractive sculpture because, unlike marble, a manuscript can take additions as well as subtractions, but the emphasis is usually on what’s not necessary.<\/p>\n
This plot line doesn’t serve the story. \u00a0This character is unnecessary. \u00a0This whole chapter can go and nobody will be harmed. \u00a0Of course, there are, too, those additional descriptions, enhanced motivations, now needed scenes. \u00a0In the case of Missing I cut out 30,000 words and ended up with a word count roughly the same as the one I started with.<\/p>\n
I’m now waiting for Bob Klein to finish and then there will be the work of assimilating his critiques and finishing a last draft before submission. \u00a0In January, Missing will start its journey into the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Samhain \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Winter Moon Put together a banker’s box of manuscripts used during the several revisions of Missing. That cleaned out a full shelf. \u00a0Back at Loki’s … Continue reading Writing A Novel: Phases<\/span>