Other writers out there – do you enjoy revising?
I revise on hard copy. A pile of paper. Tangible. Gratifying. Scary.
And next? Apply the contrary skills of imagination and organization, of development and compression to bring the story to its full potential and to answer that all-important question: what is this novel really about?
In order to see the strengths and weaknesses – scenes that temporarily take my breath away and scenes that make me wonder how much sleep I had the night before – I have to be objective. For me, that’s the most difficult part of the process. Oh, along with dividing the book into chapters – I’ve never been able to write in chapters like normal people. But the rest? Digging for meaning? Cutting the dross? Intensely satisfying.
I was honoured to receive an Arts Nova Scotia grant for the initial revision, and by May of 2017 had produced a much more workable second draft. 15,000 words gone into cyberspace.
Since then, many more have followed, and I now think I’ve finished revising my medieval novel. Or have I?
Does revising ever end?
Yes, yes, please stop revising and get it out so we can read it!
I’ll be just as excited when the time comes! Thanks, Carol.
I love your pithy post. Digging for meaning? Cutting the dross?
Intensely satisfying!
Thanks, Sharon. I remember a long time ago hearing Don McKay say, with reference to poems that aren’t working, “Dig deeper.” And many years ago when I attended a workshop at UNB with Fred Cogswell, he said (with reference to my poems, and not just once), “Cut!”
I continue to struggle with structure – I feel like I’ve rewritten each of my novels at least 10 times by the time it’s published. And no, revision doesn’t end until you’ve read and approved the final copy edit – only then is it out of your hands. Yikes! I edit picture books on paper, but novels on the screen. Reading aloud is still my best editing tool. Provence!
Reading aloud, yes. I sit in my study mouthing dialogue and description, listening for rhythm and redundancies and repetition, and hoping my neighbours can’t hear me! Should I pick up one of my own published books and start to read it, guess what, I start revising. Thanks, Jan!
Revising on paper, writing notes all over the place, cutting out passages with scissors, sticking them in new places with scotch tape, being so immersed in the story that you live, breathe and dream it at night, and wake with tighter images and lines of dialogue in your head…..It is such hard, hard work, but absolutely worth it and the only way to get to the bottom of a novel. Rewarding in the end, nose-to-grindstone tough, feels like childbirth. Painful at the time, all consuming, but once it’s done you kinda forget the ‘suffering.’ 🙂
You get it! For me, it’s also about getting to know what I’ve written. An odd thing to say, when you’ve just finished writing it.
I hope your own present revisions are nearly done, Carol. Remember – “rewarding in the end.” And indeed it is.
Thanks for this post, Jill. Lovely to hear you may be at the end. It’s where I’m at now–revising. Now, how did you divided the book into chapters? My problem too!
I was never able to ‘get through’ Beowulf in university. Of course we would not have had the Heany translation/interpretation. Your thoughts on this have made me want to read Heaney’s Beowulf and return to his poetry.
Because I took science at Dal, I was never exposed to Old English literature. Better to come at it later in life? Who knows.