Three's a charm?
Got the third round of MIND OVER MIND edits, and still had a couple of issues to work out. One was making tomato soup. Gabrielle wanted the tomatoes mentioned at the beginning, and I wouldn't do it because you put the tomatoes in last. What I finally understood this edit was that she didn't need them in the pot, necessarily, just mentioned--stick the can of tomato sauce on the counter or something. It's the same idea as putting that gun in scene 2 if you fire it in scene 6. I'm facepalming.
The other issue was one where I was too subtle in showing something. I think a couple of phrases fixed it.
The last thing was a rewrite, changing another flashback into a present-time event. It was one she'd asked me to do before, but I had two flashbacks in one spot (I think. It's fuzzy now.) and missed the second one. So I rewrote it, which was fun, because I got a little more of Josh's reactions in. Josh really is a fun character.
So, now that's off, and I spent the rest of last week and this finding homes for all the stories I'd had languishing in my files. I also went back over Coyote Fires and need to find a home for it. It's been a difficult time at home, so I've not had much heart for DISCOVERY; however, that isn't stopping me from my other writing.
Know what I need for DISCOVERY? An editor like Gabrielle. Maybe I should start asking myself WWGD?
Showing posts with label gabrielle harbowy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gabrielle harbowy. Show all posts
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
my Novel's Journey: Mind Over Mind Edits
Once again, Discovery takes a back seat to a more pressing writing need; this time, the first round edits to Mind Over Mind.
This is the revision of the first novel I'd ever written, the story of a young man who develops psychic powers, and has aliens communicate with him. The experiences drive him insane, and at the start of the book, he's been in an asylum for five years when a young intern decides to help him by pretending to believe him and teaching him to control his powers. In the meantime, the aliens--representatives of warring factions--each think he's their savior and try to get him to fight on their side.
I've loved this story for a long time, but knew the manuscript needed some work, so I'm very pleased to have Gabrielle Harbowy, editor of DragonMoon give it a very critical eye. It's the most invasive editing I've ever had, with scenes that need re-written and some changes in the placement and flow of the text. Overall, however, I've loved her suggestions. Revising has been an exciting experience.
It's been a couple of years since I've seen this manuscript, so my first run of edits is really more of a read-through. I'm approving all the changes I agree with and writing new scenes as they come to mind. Where a change is needed that doesn't immediately hit me, I make a note and move on. Most of the scene changes so far have been to alter point of view switches within scenes. This has been fun because I get to live the book with my characters all over again.
I've gotten through 214 pages in three days, and figure I'll finish it this weekend. Then, I'll go through it looking for the bigger issues: Is my character flawed enough? Are the chapter sizes more even? Did I chop up flashback, or change some to flow in real time?
In the meantime, I am still working on Discovery. I'm trying to write 500 words a day. So far, Sister Ann is taking center stage. A couple of days ago, she came up with a very interesting quote about pain and fear, faith and knowledge and how sometimes you need all four for an epiphany. The next day, I wrote a scene where she declared someone a genius because he just skipped straight to the epiphany. The fun thing about Ann is going to be that none of the characters are going to understand her, but the reader is going to be able to see all the connections.
This is the revision of the first novel I'd ever written, the story of a young man who develops psychic powers, and has aliens communicate with him. The experiences drive him insane, and at the start of the book, he's been in an asylum for five years when a young intern decides to help him by pretending to believe him and teaching him to control his powers. In the meantime, the aliens--representatives of warring factions--each think he's their savior and try to get him to fight on their side.
I've loved this story for a long time, but knew the manuscript needed some work, so I'm very pleased to have Gabrielle Harbowy, editor of DragonMoon give it a very critical eye. It's the most invasive editing I've ever had, with scenes that need re-written and some changes in the placement and flow of the text. Overall, however, I've loved her suggestions. Revising has been an exciting experience.
It's been a couple of years since I've seen this manuscript, so my first run of edits is really more of a read-through. I'm approving all the changes I agree with and writing new scenes as they come to mind. Where a change is needed that doesn't immediately hit me, I make a note and move on. Most of the scene changes so far have been to alter point of view switches within scenes. This has been fun because I get to live the book with my characters all over again.
I've gotten through 214 pages in three days, and figure I'll finish it this weekend. Then, I'll go through it looking for the bigger issues: Is my character flawed enough? Are the chapter sizes more even? Did I chop up flashback, or change some to flow in real time?
In the meantime, I am still working on Discovery. I'm trying to write 500 words a day. So far, Sister Ann is taking center stage. A couple of days ago, she came up with a very interesting quote about pain and fear, faith and knowledge and how sometimes you need all four for an epiphany. The next day, I wrote a scene where she declared someone a genius because he just skipped straight to the epiphany. The fun thing about Ann is going to be that none of the characters are going to understand her, but the reader is going to be able to see all the connections.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)