Karen GoatKeeper's Blog - Posts Tagged "rewrite"
Blackmailing Myself
I started "The Pumpkin Project" ten years ago. It was fun. It was challenging. I roared ahead on it.
Then my mother became ill. Work stopped.
For me it is much harder to return to a writing project than it is to start a new one. Perhaps the new one has that aura of excitement the older project wore through. Perhaps the vision of what the older project was to be has slipped away. Perhaps there is a difficult part in that older project and a new one lacks those snags for now.
Bit by bit I am working my way through "The Pumpkin Project" as I must get it done this year. Every year I tell myself: This is the year I will finish it. And each year slips away.
This year I'm doing some personal blackmail.
First I'm posting the Investigations on my website over the summer as my Outside Project. (This has the added benefit of having most of the projects already done instead of needing to be done.)
Secondly I signed up for CampNaNo to do an edit of the book.
I did make it all the way through all the written parts, the stories, the Projects and the Investigations. They are now formatted the same way. The stories sound good and are rearranged to fit into the book better. The main Project is split into more doable pieces and enlarged so anyone, even apartment dwellers, can do it.
Now I get to go through the book again. All the Investigation tables will become images and look nicer. All the pictures will be resized and will look more uniform throughout the book.
Just in time warmer weather is arriving here in the Ozarks. Time to plant my pumpkins: giant, sugar pie and miniature (in a container). There are those missing pictures to take. I even arranged with other people to grow some pumpkins and take pictures in case the squash bugs attack my vines.
Will this year be the year "The Pumpkin Project" gets done? Determination, persistence and blackmail say yes.
Then my mother became ill. Work stopped.
For me it is much harder to return to a writing project than it is to start a new one. Perhaps the new one has that aura of excitement the older project wore through. Perhaps the vision of what the older project was to be has slipped away. Perhaps there is a difficult part in that older project and a new one lacks those snags for now.
Bit by bit I am working my way through "The Pumpkin Project" as I must get it done this year. Every year I tell myself: This is the year I will finish it. And each year slips away.
This year I'm doing some personal blackmail.
First I'm posting the Investigations on my website over the summer as my Outside Project. (This has the added benefit of having most of the projects already done instead of needing to be done.)
Secondly I signed up for CampNaNo to do an edit of the book.
I did make it all the way through all the written parts, the stories, the Projects and the Investigations. They are now formatted the same way. The stories sound good and are rearranged to fit into the book better. The main Project is split into more doable pieces and enlarged so anyone, even apartment dwellers, can do it.
Now I get to go through the book again. All the Investigation tables will become images and look nicer. All the pictures will be resized and will look more uniform throughout the book.
Just in time warmer weather is arriving here in the Ozarks. Time to plant my pumpkins: giant, sugar pie and miniature (in a container). There are those missing pictures to take. I even arranged with other people to grow some pumpkins and take pictures in case the squash bugs attack my vines.
Will this year be the year "The Pumpkin Project" gets done? Determination, persistence and blackmail say yes.
Is Editing Writing?
Page by page I am again going through "The Pumpkin Project" even though the writing has been gone over several times. This time the pictures, tables and page numbers are the targets. Each page is listed so I will have a list of those pictures and other items I need to complete the book. The list will also correct the Table of Contents.
Such editing is essential to complete a book. Mistakes do slip by from time to time but most get caught by a careful edit. A sloppy edit can sink a new book for potential readers.
But is editing writing?
Rewrites can be. A piece can look entirely different, a new piece entirely other than the subject when a rewrite is done. So a rewrite can be writing.
But what about editing?
I tweak a word here and there. I may add a sentence or change one. But I am not writing anything new.
So I don't think editing is writing, only a necessary adjunct to writing.
Perhaps that is why editing can feel so stifling and plodding.
I long for the freedom to write. A story is distracting my brain. Yet, if I start writing, can I continue to plod faithfully along on "The Pumpkin Project" edit?
Such editing is essential to complete a book. Mistakes do slip by from time to time but most get caught by a careful edit. A sloppy edit can sink a new book for potential readers.
But is editing writing?
Rewrites can be. A piece can look entirely different, a new piece entirely other than the subject when a rewrite is done. So a rewrite can be writing.
But what about editing?
I tweak a word here and there. I may add a sentence or change one. But I am not writing anything new.
So I don't think editing is writing, only a necessary adjunct to writing.
Perhaps that is why editing can feel so stifling and plodding.
I long for the freedom to write. A story is distracting my brain. Yet, if I start writing, can I continue to plod faithfully along on "The Pumpkin Project" edit?
Draft Excitement
Capri Capers is a complete draft. That doesn't mean it's ready for viewing only that it has a complete story in it.
A complete draft is special. Bringing it to life as a novel is exciting in many ways. The main character Harriet is becoming a good friend. Arthur is so shy around Harriet. The villains are more difficult but even they are coming to be people instead of stereotype villains.
Satisfying as doing this rewrite is, it doesn't have the excitement of creating a new draft. Rewriting a draft has constraints. The ending is known. Much of the plot line and story arc is known.
A new draft is just that: new. There are some ideas to form the story and plot lines but they are loose, easily altered. The main characters are still shadowy people waiting for a spotlight to reveal them.
November is time for to create a new draft. The idea has been percolating for a year and more. Anticipation is building. There are a few bits of research to wrap up and a week to get it done.
Until then Capri Capers will plod along.
A complete draft is special. Bringing it to life as a novel is exciting in many ways. The main character Harriet is becoming a good friend. Arthur is so shy around Harriet. The villains are more difficult but even they are coming to be people instead of stereotype villains.
Satisfying as doing this rewrite is, it doesn't have the excitement of creating a new draft. Rewriting a draft has constraints. The ending is known. Much of the plot line and story arc is known.
A new draft is just that: new. There are some ideas to form the story and plot lines but they are loose, easily altered. The main characters are still shadowy people waiting for a spotlight to reveal them.
November is time for to create a new draft. The idea has been percolating for a year and more. Anticipation is building. There are a few bits of research to wrap up and a week to get it done.
Until then Capri Capers will plod along.
Too Close?
I've heard many times the advice to set a draft aside then come back to it to rewrite it. This is supposed to give the writer some distance from the draft making the writer more objective.
How long should the writer wait? For some it's a week. Others wait a month for the story to dim in their memory.
Capri Capers sat waiting for a year. Yet the first paragraph made the story come back to life as though I had written it the day before.
But the second rewrite is done. I managed to find several places I had changed before but missed related areas. The characters are more alive to me now. The epilogue isn't a series of four word sentences anymore.
But was I objective enough? Was I objective at all? I don't know. I know i was too busy laughing evilly through one section to even glimpse objectivity let alone practice it.
So I am positive I am reading what I expect to read in places instead of what is actually written. How can I obtain some objectivity?
This time I will farm that out. After all, if this crazy romp of a book can make others laugh, I can consider it a good book and do a final edit.
Anyone want to read through Capri Capers? It's about 50,000 words.
How long should the writer wait? For some it's a week. Others wait a month for the story to dim in their memory.
Capri Capers sat waiting for a year. Yet the first paragraph made the story come back to life as though I had written it the day before.
But the second rewrite is done. I managed to find several places I had changed before but missed related areas. The characters are more alive to me now. The epilogue isn't a series of four word sentences anymore.
But was I objective enough? Was I objective at all? I don't know. I know i was too busy laughing evilly through one section to even glimpse objectivity let alone practice it.
So I am positive I am reading what I expect to read in places instead of what is actually written. How can I obtain some objectivity?
This time I will farm that out. After all, if this crazy romp of a book can make others laugh, I can consider it a good book and do a final edit.
Anyone want to read through Capri Capers? It's about 50,000 words.
