Revision Therapy
The last few weeks my revision of DARLINGTON has been driving me crazy. I love Marna & Tennyson & Thacker & etc., but something just wasn't quite clicking. I wasn't still trying for perfection, at least, not in the same way. I'd started rewriting instead of tweaking an already-typed document: some things stayed, a lot of things changed or went away entirely. Honestly, I think this is The Best Second Draft Option, though I've only done it once before (when changing W&F from past-tense to present).
And yet... I kept getting bogged down in details. I've been working with these characters for over a year, but I still don't know them-- or their story-- as well as characters in some of my other works. Which is something that comes with time, yes, but it's definitely frustrating at this point when I want to work with them, but I'm having trouble getting motivations right.
My solution? Work on something else. Honestly, DARLINGTON doesn't have to be done immediately-- much as I'd like it to be-- and my heart-book has been begging for attention lately. So I've been working on rewrites on THE TIES OF BLOOD for the past couple days and oh, it's so frustrating in other ways! But wonderful.
Working with TTOB gives me an entirely different problem: knowing the characters and story too well. Some of the lines I re-read as I'm working are lines I wrote nearly ten years ago that have survived the various incarnations of this book. Many of them have to change now that I'm writing A. in first person for the first time since he showed up in my mind. And writing him in first person is difficult, too. I'm so used to having the step-back from his pain that is writing in third person. Not anymore. And it's not a fun place to be, despite his self-deprecating humor at times.
But it is helping me see DARLINGTON better, too. Realizing that ten years and four complete drafts haven't made TTOB the book it's meant to be (until now!) lets me realize that I can give myself some space with DARLINGTON, that I can re-plot scenes and fix things, because I've done it before. And I'll do it again-- both with TTOB and DARLINGTON and other stories.
I just have to give myself the space to see them for the stage they're in and not the stage I wish they were in.
And yet... I kept getting bogged down in details. I've been working with these characters for over a year, but I still don't know them-- or their story-- as well as characters in some of my other works. Which is something that comes with time, yes, but it's definitely frustrating at this point when I want to work with them, but I'm having trouble getting motivations right.
My solution? Work on something else. Honestly, DARLINGTON doesn't have to be done immediately-- much as I'd like it to be-- and my heart-book has been begging for attention lately. So I've been working on rewrites on THE TIES OF BLOOD for the past couple days and oh, it's so frustrating in other ways! But wonderful.
Working with TTOB gives me an entirely different problem: knowing the characters and story too well. Some of the lines I re-read as I'm working are lines I wrote nearly ten years ago that have survived the various incarnations of this book. Many of them have to change now that I'm writing A. in first person for the first time since he showed up in my mind. And writing him in first person is difficult, too. I'm so used to having the step-back from his pain that is writing in third person. Not anymore. And it's not a fun place to be, despite his self-deprecating humor at times.
But it is helping me see DARLINGTON better, too. Realizing that ten years and four complete drafts haven't made TTOB the book it's meant to be (until now!) lets me realize that I can give myself some space with DARLINGTON, that I can re-plot scenes and fix things, because I've done it before. And I'll do it again-- both with TTOB and DARLINGTON and other stories.
I just have to give myself the space to see them for the stage they're in and not the stage I wish they were in.