Remember the Little Things During Revision
by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
I read a lot of blog posts about revision and most of them are focusing on the big things: arc, character development, conflict, etc.
This is a post to remind writers about the little things.
As time has gone on and I’ve written more books, I’ve been much better about catching the small-but-important stuff–now, as I’m writing it in the first draft.
But it used to be something that my editors had to point out to me.
What are the little things? For me, they’re like tiny little plot holes. And frequently, they’re involved with a subplot instead of the main plot (for me, solving the murder mystery).
For example. Say you have a subplot involving a minor aggravation for your protagonist–something to make her feel tense and add to the general stresses she’s experiencing. Her lawnmower is broken and her yard is a disaster and she’s supposed to host a dinner party (where someone ends up dead).
The dinner party happens (with guests hiking through the underbrush to the front door). There’s a mysterious death. The sleuth investigates.
But at some point, her yard man comes by and heroically mows the yard.
The sleuth needs to interview her next door neighbor to get details on the deadly dinner party from a guest’s perspective.
If the next door neighbor makes no comment about the yard or if the sleuth doesn’t apologize about the terrible state the yard had previously been in…it just doesn’t add up.
These kinds of tiny plot holes are easy to create. If you’re like me, you can get very single-minded in terms of the main plot and want to focus exclusively on it.
Sometimes, to help juggle the bits and pieces, I keep a list of things that are happening in the background or off-stage in my story. And yes, these are random bits of story, but not mentioning them again can leave a reader with that ‘something isn’t tied up feeling.’ My list can include everything from ‘Puddin said she’d take up PT exercises’ to ‘Elaine’s new hobby is restoration’ to ‘the yard was a horrible mess and now looks a ton better.’ It can be helpful to make note of these things as you write them.
Do you ever have trouble remembering tiny bits of subplots? How do you manage them?
Photo credit: phatcontroller via VisualHunt / CC BY-NC
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