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Funny, I go weeks without thinking of anything I want to blog about, and then suddenly today I've had at least three questions/situations buzzing through my mind that I want to ask you about. Yes, you. Anybody reading this? I do love to hear from you.
Let's focus on one thing today. This question is for writers: any kind of writer. I know I'm read by real professional published writers EVERY so often, and that might be MOST helpful, but I'll be happy with the thoughts of hobbyists, also. The question is: where do you begin when revisiting and possibly redoing a previous work-in-progress?
This is a silly question, when I think about it. Of all writing skills, this is what I have the MOST EXPERIENCE WITH. I've spent most of my writing career from the time I was about 14 not writing first drafts, but REWRITING stories I'd written before: "Hey, this story I wrote when I was 11 is pretty bad, but it's got some good bits, so I think I'll write it again KNOWING WHAT I KNOW NOW!" That particular story-- the one I first wrote when I was 11-- has been rewritten completely (not counting smaller revisions and edits) at least 3 times, and though in the past few years I've given up on it, some nostalgia made me send it to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
elouise82 a few months ago on the off-chance she'd have any idea whether any of it is still salvageable. Basically, asking the very question I'm asking here, except NOW I'M OPENING IT UP BROADLY AND MORE GENERALLY. And thinking about a different story entirely.
This one I wrote for the first time (well, six chapters worth) in 11th grade. I've mentioned it. It started from some flights of fancy my best friends and I took off on during a sleepover. It starred the boy I had a crush on as a spy, the three of us as heroic and/or brilliant journalists and/or poets, many teachers and classmates as, in most cases, villains, and George Harrison's Imaginary (because we made him up) Nephew Billy, who turned out to be a superhero.
Ten years ago I decided to rewrite it, to make it less of a private joke and more of an actual book. I tweaked the characters-- while still inspired by real character traits in real people, they became fully formed and individual characters of their own. I structured the plot. I worked on it for the Institute of Children's Literature's bookwriting course. It got to a This May Be Finished sort of point. But it wasn't perfect. The tone was uneven. The plot was implausible. I messed around with the opening chapters awhile. Bruce Coville read one of these first-chapter rewrites at an SCBWI conference and made my year by liking it, and giving good advice about what I needed to change. Trying to figure out how to solve those issues, I decided to do a complete and total rewrite AGAIN. But I did less than one chapter of a rewrite before I gave up.
But you've heard me, the past two years. I've all but given up on writing entirely. And any more, if I DID make myself get back in the habit, I don't know what's worth WORKING on in the first place.
Today, during yoga class, all meditative and centered during savasana, I started thinking about the characters in that book. Billy and Hannie and Ashlynn and Ian. These very real, very developed, very alive inside-my-head characters. I still don't know what the heck to do with their story, but there's something ABOUT how they popped into my head today right when I was at my most-holistically-healthiest. I really DO need to tell their story. I'm just still not sure how their story WORKS.
I don't know where to go, if I should keep pursuing the Complete Rewrite I started, and if I do how much of the original plot points I want to keep, or if I should go off in a completely different direction (whatever that could BE)-- it was hard enough coming up with the FIRST plot. I'm so in the habit of NOT TRUSTING MY ABILITIES that figuring out what I need to do with it all feels out of my reach. In the end, maybe I don't really know what question I'm asking here. Maybe I have no idea what advice I think I need. I just have these characters I care about and don't know what to do with. How do you KNOW when a story needs to be completely scrapped? How do you say goodbye to characters that still haunt you with their Realness when you just don't know what to DO with them?
Maybe I'm just still too scared to write.
Let's focus on one thing today. This question is for writers: any kind of writer. I know I'm read by real professional published writers EVERY so often, and that might be MOST helpful, but I'll be happy with the thoughts of hobbyists, also. The question is: where do you begin when revisiting and possibly redoing a previous work-in-progress?
This is a silly question, when I think about it. Of all writing skills, this is what I have the MOST EXPERIENCE WITH. I've spent most of my writing career from the time I was about 14 not writing first drafts, but REWRITING stories I'd written before: "Hey, this story I wrote when I was 11 is pretty bad, but it's got some good bits, so I think I'll write it again KNOWING WHAT I KNOW NOW!" That particular story-- the one I first wrote when I was 11-- has been rewritten completely (not counting smaller revisions and edits) at least 3 times, and though in the past few years I've given up on it, some nostalgia made me send it to
elouise82 a few months ago on the off-chance she'd have any idea whether any of it is still salvageable. Basically, asking the very question I'm asking here, except NOW I'M OPENING IT UP BROADLY AND MORE GENERALLY. And thinking about a different story entirely.This one I wrote for the first time (well, six chapters worth) in 11th grade. I've mentioned it. It started from some flights of fancy my best friends and I took off on during a sleepover. It starred the boy I had a crush on as a spy, the three of us as heroic and/or brilliant journalists and/or poets, many teachers and classmates as, in most cases, villains, and George Harrison's Imaginary (because we made him up) Nephew Billy, who turned out to be a superhero.
Ten years ago I decided to rewrite it, to make it less of a private joke and more of an actual book. I tweaked the characters-- while still inspired by real character traits in real people, they became fully formed and individual characters of their own. I structured the plot. I worked on it for the Institute of Children's Literature's bookwriting course. It got to a This May Be Finished sort of point. But it wasn't perfect. The tone was uneven. The plot was implausible. I messed around with the opening chapters awhile. Bruce Coville read one of these first-chapter rewrites at an SCBWI conference and made my year by liking it, and giving good advice about what I needed to change. Trying to figure out how to solve those issues, I decided to do a complete and total rewrite AGAIN. But I did less than one chapter of a rewrite before I gave up.
But you've heard me, the past two years. I've all but given up on writing entirely. And any more, if I DID make myself get back in the habit, I don't know what's worth WORKING on in the first place.
Today, during yoga class, all meditative and centered during savasana, I started thinking about the characters in that book. Billy and Hannie and Ashlynn and Ian. These very real, very developed, very alive inside-my-head characters. I still don't know what the heck to do with their story, but there's something ABOUT how they popped into my head today right when I was at my most-holistically-healthiest. I really DO need to tell their story. I'm just still not sure how their story WORKS.
I don't know where to go, if I should keep pursuing the Complete Rewrite I started, and if I do how much of the original plot points I want to keep, or if I should go off in a completely different direction (whatever that could BE)-- it was hard enough coming up with the FIRST plot. I'm so in the habit of NOT TRUSTING MY ABILITIES that figuring out what I need to do with it all feels out of my reach. In the end, maybe I don't really know what question I'm asking here. Maybe I have no idea what advice I think I need. I just have these characters I care about and don't know what to do with. How do you KNOW when a story needs to be completely scrapped? How do you say goodbye to characters that still haunt you with their Realness when you just don't know what to DO with them?
Maybe I'm just still too scared to write.
