Brian Yansky's Blog, page 32

Process 4--revision

After I've gotten through my drafting stage I get to my first revision (which most likely is the third or fourth time I've worked through the manuscript). It's still messy but the main elements of the story are there: the characters are fleshed out, and the structure seems pretty sound. I may still move chapters or sections around a little, but I have a sense at this point that I might actually finish this novel. I have a pretty good idea of what the larger concern or concerns is or are in th...

Making Connections

How do you get the reader to connect to your work? You make them feel involved. Sure, right, but how? One thing they must do is be involved in the story and one way you can get them involved is by not with-holding what is going on in the character. The character is constantly being affected by what is happening in each scene. He's changing. OR he should be. If he's not maybe something is wrong in your scene.

All these changes can be small ones that occur when he encounters something, well, s...

Process3-drafting

For me, first revision isn't really a revision. I call it drafting because for the first two or three drafts I'm still working on finding my way. I know that, in a way, until you get to the time of polishing the novel—the end stage—it's all really finding your way, but in the first drafts I'm spending most of my time finding my way and I know I'm lost a lot.

In draft 1 I'm chopping my way through the wilderness. I don't really know where I'll end up. I'm not sure I'll end up anywhere. Draft 2...

Process2-first drafts

First drafts are messy. There's no way around that. They're infuriatingly messy. You can't THINK too much when you're in front of the computer screen or you will freeze up but you do think about the manuscript at other times. Compulsively, you wonder about this detail or choice or character. Especially the choices—these you wonder about a lot. You get lost. Your story zigs. It zags. It leads you through a wood so thick you have to hack your way out.

You will think, of course, but when you si...

Process 1

Trust your process.

You have to trust your process once you figure out what it is. It's not easy to trust your process because every writer faces moments in a manuscript when process might be blamed for any number of unfortunate situations. You might claim, for instance, that it was process that led you right into a brick wall or off a cliff or into an imperfect storm, earthquake or any one of the many threatening, potentially fatal, disasters out there. "Trust my process?" You might screa...

Silence

We need silence as writers.

I'm not talking about the silence of a room to work in or a space to work at though that's certainly nice. Some people do need that, too. I'm not one of them. I can work anywhere: in an airport or coffee house or restaurant or hotel room –once driving down I-35 –pretty much anywhere. I prefer the relative silence of my house, but I don't need it.

But I still need silence.

I need to find that place of calm within me. I have to silence all the voices. And there are ...

Some Days

Like a lot of writers, some days I feel pretty good about my writing. I'm happy about it, content for little blocks of time. They always end, but they're very nice. I walk around with a smile or I'm ready to smile very easily.Strangers seem kind. Everyone likes me immediately. Children are drawn to me. If I happen to pass a Jehovah's Witness on the street, he or she tells me I don't have to worry about going to hell. Something of my satisfaction radiates.

Other times a certain quote repeat...

rejection of a rejection

I once heard an agent read a rejection he'd got from someone he rejected. The letter began with something like, " Thank you so much for your rejection but I'm afraid I'm unable to use it at this time. For that reason I will have to reject your rejection. Please don't take this personally. I receive many fine rejections every month, so I have be quite selective in the rejections I accept." It went on for a full page like that. It was hilarious. The agent was obviously amused. Did it help the w...

what's at stake?

Writing books and teachers and workshop leaders often get to this question about a manuscript: WHAT'S AT STAKE? What is your character risking to get what he wants? What is at stake in your story as a whole? For example, in Harry Potter there are always lots of minor things at stake in scenes (passing a test, getting in trouble with Snape etc...), and his life is often at stake and there's also usually the threat against a friend or friends, the school, his whole world. The stakes are consta...

Avoid summary

If you're like me you want to understand what you write. You want to know what it's all about. It's your world after all. But we're wrong. One of my favorite writers, Kurt Vonnegut, wrote that writers don't always understand what they write as they write. It was just a passing comment. He said that when writers are writing well, they're writing about something they can almost grasp.
ALMOST GRASP.

Sometimes I give into the sin of summary. I want to summarize what I've been trying to say in a st...