Revisions Step 2: What to Cut?

One of the big things I need to do with my revisions is to cut some of the length of the novel. I know there are sections where the pacing slows down, or the story gets caught up with subplots, so I'll take a closer look at those.

To help with that, I'm revisiting all the critiques from my amazing critique group MiG Writers. I'm going through them carefully, not for the picky details (those will come later), but for larger ideas that affect the whole novel. Wow - it's so helpful to have a good critique group! My group members put a lot of thought into their comments and I'm taking them seriously.

There's some great advice for editing over at The Blood-Red Pencil. I love the idea of getting a quick feel for the pattern of tension and conflict in a novel by assigning a ranking to sections or chapters and making a graph to see how it looks. Maybe that will help me decide what sections I need to cut (another painful process).

What's your best tip for deciding what to cut?

Beginning Revisions: First Read

I waited a few months after last reading my (unsubbed) novel, hoping that would give me the distance I needed to be more objective about it when I started revising. My plan was to read it all the way through first, then think about what I needed to change. I was surprised how painful it was for me to read it. It didn't feel like a real book. It sounded a lot worse than I expected. And a few times I got so bored I wanted to give up on the idea of reading through it at all.

Maybe I wasn't in the right mood, but I made myself finish. After a while, it got easier. I slipped back into the world of my story and even began to enjoy a scene here or there.

The process of reading it through without trying to fix anything turned out to be valuable. For starters, those places where my attention wandered were telling me something. The fact that I didn't get into the book right away might mean I haven't got the opening right yet. The places that I enjoyed might be telling me about what I need to keep. 

Have you ever found your own writing difficult to read? Did it turn out to be helpful?

Blog Awards and Seven Interesting Things

In the past week or so, I've received a couple of blog awards:

Thank you to Karen Strong and Samuel Park, both of whom have interesting blogs you should check out!

In keeping with the spirit of the awards (or the rules) I'm going to tell you seven interesting things about myself:

1. I'm addicted to board games (okay, some don't have boards but they aren't computer games) and I play at least one game of something everyday. Current favs: Ticket to Ride Europe, Triominos, Backgammon.

2. All of my novels (4 so far) contain nature in some way, the influence of growing up in Northern Ontario.

3. Though I'm Canadian and have lived in Mississauga, Ontario for a long time now, I once lived in Brooklyn, NY, in Cobble Hill on Dean St.  

4. It may be hard to believe, but I actually enjoy teaching kindergarten. Teaching is my third career.

5. A place I've never been but would like to visit is Venice, or actually anywhere in Italy, for the art and the food.

6. I enjoy cooking and have changed the ingredients in almost every recipe I've tried.

7. I don't normally do these "pass it on" type of things, but since it's summer and I'm on a more relaxed schedule I decided to live a little.

In no particular order, some other blogs you might be interested in (I think there are supposed to be ten, but I don't always follow the rules):

M.B. West at M.B.Writes

Caroline at Caroline by Line

Melissa at Chasing the Dream

Marcia Hoehne at her blog

Jennifer Bertman at From the Mixed Up Files of Jennifer Bertman

Theresa Milstein at Substitute Teacher's Saga

Setting: Using Real Life

Something that helps me to create a strong sense of place in my novels is to use details from places I've been. That way, I can imagine the setting in my head as my characters interact with it -- how the hallway looks, what the restaurant smells like, where the best climbing trees are in the playground.

The downside of doing this is that sometimes, I don't include enough detail. I'm seeing it through my eyes, not a stranger's eyes. I may leave out a key detail because I've seen it so many times before. It almost makes me think I should choose an unfamiliar setting I could visit. Then I'd actually take the time to absorb all the sensory details I need to really bring it alive. Do you use real-life settings in your novels? How do you avoid the problem of being too familiar with them?

If you don't know it, a great resource for getting the right descriptive details is the Setting Thesaurus over at The Bookshelf Muse.

Celebrate...And Win!

I have a lot to celebrate! I finally finished the last chapter of my first draft! It's done! Yay! Now my children have stolen it away to find all the things they think I should fix.

If you are a follower of my blog:
As a thank you to my blog followers for their encouragement, I'd like to offer you a "first impression" reaction of the first page (approx 250 words) of your latest MG or YA writing project. To take me up on the thank you, paste your first page into the body of an e-mail, and send it to me at amackca at hotmail dot com by July 11, 2010. In the subject line, please write: first page critique. [Note: I won't open attachments.]

Everyone should check this out:
My critique buddies and I are running an awesome contest to celebrate our new and improved blog! Visit MiG Writers and post a one-line summary of your story to win a critique of your first ten pages by all six of us. Take my word for it, my critique partners dish out some pretty helpful feedback.

What a First Draft Reveals

Writing a first draft really shows up your strengths and weaknesses as a writer. Have you ever noticed how some parts come easily? It shows where your writing is strong. For instance, when I write dialogue, it seems to flow naturally. Later, I probably won't need to do much editing of the dialogue (unless it relates to the plot, of course). I'd say it's one of my writing strengths.

On the other hand, I'm not so good at establishing the setting (among other things). I've been writing so fast, concentrating on bigger things, like the story, that my characters are practically floating in the middle of nowhere. Not always a bad thing, but if your character is in a market and suddenly walks into their bedroom...well you can see how that could cause problems for the reader. My critiquers often point out that I need to add more setting details. Sometimes, they say my settings are too much of the same and need variety.

Have you ever thought about your writing strengths and weaknesses? It's useful sometimes. If you're aware of your weaknesses, you'll have a great starting point for what to tackle when it comes to revision. And it shows where you can do more reading or exercises to develop your writing skill.

WIP update:  In case you're wondering, I'm still plodding along with my first draft, with about two chapters to go. Then I'll have to go back and make sure my characters aren't floating around with no sense of time or place.

Happy Canada Day!

What I enjoy most about Canada Day is all the blissful silence I get for writing, since no one else has to get up to go anywhere today. I can't sleep in, since I have some kind of built in alarm clock that wakes me up with the robins (or maybe it is the robins that wake me up). I love the early morning peacefulness. I get my best writing ideas before a lot of other stuff crowds into my brain. 

A quick update on my novel draft:  I'm still working on it. I didn't meet my "end of June" goal (but I did have fun celebrating the end of the school year with some coworkers). It's probably going to take me another week to get my WIP finished, which is still amazing for me, since I only thought up the idea for this story in March.

If you're celebrating, Happy Canada Day! I hope you get time to do something you enjoy!