Revision Cycles

I've only recently learned to edit and revise my work. For many, many years, I didn't care to have anyone read what I wrote, and as a result, I didn't care to edit. I just wrote for the sake of putting the story down on paper for my own enjoyment. To this day, getting people to read what I write remains secondary, yet I want to learn the craft and therefore I am learning to edit.

In the past few weeks, in the process of writing and editing a short story, I decided to keep track of my edits in order to learn something from what I was doing and perhaps improve my process (my day job involves getting people to reflect on their experience and learn from others' experience at work, so I may have a tendency to over-analyze things). I used track changes in MS Word, but for each cycle of revision and edits, I created a different user so that the successive revision cycles show up in different colors and can be isolated, as if multiple reviewers had edited the piece.

Here's what I learned:
1. Very few of the original words remained unchanged by the time I completed the fourth cycle of edits, yet the story didn't change dramatically.  This could be unique to this story because I was mulling it over in my head for a long time before I sat down to write it down.

2. The first cycle of revisions focused on formatting and basic fixes to make the draft more readable, and on identifying major loose ends in the storyline (without fixing them yet).

3. The second cycle of revision focused on improving the dialogue, cutting down unnecessary elements, tightening the story by fixing the previously identified loose ends and continuing to mark problem areas with side comments even if I didn't know how to fix them.

4. The third cycle of revision continued the tightening of the story, fixing problems, sharpening the dialogue and finding ways to further sharpen the saw, mostly by connecting more dots (perhaps more than necessary). This may be the critical point for me, because that's where I started getting in trouble and I needed to remind myself to keep it simple.  Word count went up even though I was trying to keep it down. That's also when I was the most excited about the story and I though --if only for a few fleeting moments-- that it was simply brilliant.

5. That didn't last very long.  The fourth cycle of revision was where I got in serious trouble, going back and forth on specific sentences.  I couldn't make up my mind and I started doubting that there is even a story there. I knew too much.  I'd seen too many angles to the story. I confused what was in my head with what was on paper (see related post on the Curse of Knowledge). The more revisions I made, the bigger hole I dug for myself.  I was having trouble imagining how the reader would perceive it.  This wasn't fun and I was very tempted to bury the piece to go back to writing something just for me so that I wouldn't have to worry about revisions and edits.

6. This was when I could have used a kick in the you-know-what with a clear "get it done" message.  A quick clean up round where I limited myself to reading for typos, punctuation, repeated words (my specialty), basic formatting did the trick.  Then I called it a day. It was done.

7. By the time I'd labelled it "done", it was very hard not to go to the next step and send --just to be sure I was really done with it.  Since I was drafting this post at the time, I was able to stop and think.  I knew better.  You're supposed to let a few days go by without looking at your piece, pick it up again in hard copy, read one last time for obvious mistakes, and only then SUBMIT!

8. In reality, the story went through two more rounds of changes because I asked my daughter to read it and she gave me excellent feedback suggesting more radical surgery on the piece and the eradication of an amazing number of ellipses (no idea how they all got in there).  She also helped me rename the main character. I have now submitted the pieces for critique.  Perhaps I'll write a follow up post about how the critique went. :) 

Reading, Writing and Oxytocin

I am one of those people who cry watching movies or reading books. It's embarrassing but most of this happens in the privacy of my home (I try to be careful about what I watch on planes, and I'm not the only one) so it doesn't bother anyone and my husband and kids are used to it by now. They don't even make fun of me. I haven't tried to give them the neuroscience explanation.  I don't really want to rationalize it for them with cold science, yet here it is:

"...we cry at movies because the oxytocin in the human brain is imperfectly tuned. It does not differentiate between actual human beings and flickering images of human beings." (Source: Why we cry at movies).

I'm not more emotional (or empathic) than the average person (well, even if I were, it's not something I'd admit).  It's all about the release of oxytocin. Do I somehow release more oxytocin than the people who don't cry?  I have a slightly different --though not incompatible-- unscientific theory. I think I have a more developed ability to get my head into a scene, whether while reading a book or watching a movie. That's probably why I don't like horror movies.  My brain takes them way too seriously. If I were to have my brain functions monitored via some fancy fMRI while reading or watching a movie, my brain scans (brain imaging or whatever they call it) would closely match what the protagonist is experiencing (something about mirror neurons).  That's probably what you want to achieve as a writer/director. You want your audience to be transported into a different dimension. Yet I'm guessing that some people get a little deeper into the movie or the book than others.  It's a matter of practice.

If I am writing (i.e., I have an idea for a story and my mind is playing around with scenes as soon as it has a moment to spare), jogging will inevitably trigger some daydreaming about what I am writing (a form of writing in your head before you put it down in words).  It's surprising I don't trip and fall more often. I'm jogging along and my mind goes somewhere else, re-imagining the scene I left earlier in the day or the night before.  Most of the time, this is great. It's totally uninhibited and free writing since it isn't on paper yet and can't yet be the subject of any self-critique. This is one of the best things about writing.

Once however, the scene in my head became so emotionally intense that I had to stop running. I was chocking up and I couldn't breathe. It was still early in the morning and nobody saw me.  And if someone had seen me, they would have had no idea of what was going on in my head.... which is just fine with me.

Related Resource

• From Words to Brain (can neuroscience teach you to be a better writer?), by Livia Blackburne.

Unlocking the Genie

There is nothing more frustrating as a writer than getting locked into a recurring cycle of thoughts that prevent you from moving forward.  You know your work is stuck, you know you're wasting precious hours going in circles, yet you can't find the way out.  I have been stuck in such a cycle for the past few months, doing little things -- like posting on this blog once in a while -- and telling myself that I needed a break from writing.

The way out of such a cycle is an external trigger that forces you to look at what's in front of your face in a slightly different light.  An external trigger hit me yesterday, at a meeting of the Washington DC Write 2 Publish group, a talk by Robin Sullivan, founder of Ridan Publishing. It didn't really hit me until this morning, but the trigger was yesterday's talk.

I was sitting there with 50+ published and unpublished authors and I was listening to great insights about how to market your book when you're self-publishing or using non-traditional avenues for publishing, and I was mentally reviewing my situation and how what Robin was saying fit or didn't fit the cycle of thoughts I'd been suck in.

1) Brand yourself with your name, not your first book's name
I'm going at this the wrong way since I named this blog after the name of the book.
a) I did this because I still have a day job and a day job-related blog where I don't want to mix up fiction/writing and day job blogging.  Essentially, I am still treating my fiction writing as a side activity and that's likely to remain the case.
b) Since the book isn't published (and no one reads this blog), it doesn't really matter yet. :)

2) Use social networking (in the right way)
Yes, I'm already doing some of that but again, I'm conflicted about using tools like Twitter for multiple purposes (work-related & fiction-writing).  I could set up different accounts, but... using social networking in the right way, for networking rather than for selling, means that I might as well be me out there, and that means both the wannabe author and the knowledge management professional.

3) A series is better than a single book
I may have three books in my hard drive but they don't constitute a series and they're not ready for publication (the subject of another post).  As yesterday's talk was percolating, slowly pocking holes in the thinking cycle I've been in for months, what hit me is that while my three books don't constitute a series in the traditional sense, they have strong common themes, things I keep writing about without trying to.  Until now, I'd been worried that these recurring themes were proof that I was going to be a one-book author, constantly re-writing the same story.  So, what if I turned these key themes that are so deeply embedded into my writing into multiple connected stories and embrace the themes rather than fight them.

The genie is unlocked.  Thank you Robin, for providing the necessary external trigger.

So, if I could draw one lesson from this, it is that there are at least two key elements to unlocking the genie when you're stuck: 1) expose yourself to external triggers; 2) listen to others with an open mind and while you let new ideas percolate, ask yourself "what if" questions.

Resources

• To keep up with Robin Sullivan's talks, visit the Washington DC Write to Publish Group.

• To keep up with Robin's insights about the state of the publishing industry and in particular, self-publishing and non-traditional publishing, visit Write 2 Publish.

Four More Musical Reads

Sleeping with Schubert, by Bonnie Marson
Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall, by Kazuo Ishiguro
Be Cool, by Elmore Leonard
The Chopin Manuscript, by multiple authors

It would be difficult to find four more difficult books around a theme.  The common theme is music, yet there is little in common between these four books beyond that. Surprisingly, I enjoyed all of them (I don't mention books I really can't finish). 

The Chopin Manuscript (2008 Audiobook of the Year) was the most interesting as a piece of fiction because it's written by multiple (15 to be exact) authors, each writing a different chapter.  Not surprisingly, the story takes some sharp turns but eventually comes full circle and makes sense.  It's an international thriller, but there is a reasonably deep music thread running through it. 

My favorite read of the four mentioned at the top was "Be Cool," by Elmore Leonard.  It's a sequel to Get Shorty. I never read Get Shorty and didn't even see the movie.  I'm very likely to go look for more of Leonard's writings now.  I really enjoyed his style. The music theme wasn't very deep, meaning that the author didn't need to know much about music to make it work.  The music element was really about the music industry in L.A. than about music and musicians. 

Nocturnes is a collection of short stories with a strong musical theme.  While I enjoyed the writing, the stories themselves were disappointing, and the plots either lacking or too subtle.  I was constantly waiting for something to happen and it never did.

Sleeping with Schubert (a debut novel) is somewhere between a comedy and fantasy.  I don't mind fantasy when the story is squarely taking place in a different world, but I'm not a fan of ghost stories taking place in our world. Still, I went along for the ride (literally, my morning commute) and it turned out to be a light, reasonably enjoyable story without major surprises. 

Next, I am turning to some classic short stories in "Musical Masterpieces in Prose."

Recent Musical Reads

Since I'm not in the middle of a serious writing project, I'm spending time reading about music and musicians.  Two of my latest fiction reads had something to do with musicians. Last year I watched every movie I could find that had a piano and/or pianist as key plot element.

Two recent fiction reads: 

• The Mozart Conspiracy: A Novel, by  Scott Mariani

The Mozart Conspiracy had nothing to do with music per se but used a conspiracy theory centered around Mozart's death as the backdrop for a fast-paced plot involving murder, secret societies and Jason Bourne-like characters.

• The Spanish Bow, by Andromeda Romano-Lax

The Spanish Bow was a much slower-paced plot focused on the life of a Spanish cellist in the turbulent years of  early 20th Century Europe. Music had a strong part to play in this story, and so did friendships and relationships built around music.  It's also a much more subtle story, with lots of shades of grey.  At times, I wasn't sure if it was fiction or if it was based on the life of a real cellist (Pablo Casals came to mind).   It reminded me of The Lacuna, by Barbara Kingsolver, where fiction and real historical characters and events are mixed.

Inspired by...

Over the past year or so, I have been struggling to define the genre of what I was writing. I thought it was somewhere between mainstream and women's fiction. While my main character is always a woman, what I write doesn't have strong women's themes.

And so, I keep writing and thinking of story ideas that don't necessarily fit squarely into a genre. But then, the definitions keep changing and the publishing industry is anything but static.

At the same time, I keep reading a range of different things, primarily based on the story line / blurb rather than the genre or author, and I'm starting to see a pattern. 1) I definitely like strong women characters, though they don't have to be physically strong; 2) I like stories with a mystery angle but not necessarily stories featuring professional detectives; 3) I loved THE INFORMATIONIST, by Taylor Stevens, which is a thriller with a strong female lead character taking place in central Africa.

Debut novels are better than the average published novel because it's so tough to get something published as a new author.  As a debut author, you have to come up with something that really stands out.

I will send more query letters out. I didn't really give my manuscript a serious chance yet. Taylor Stevens, I will remember to thank you for inspiring me to try again.

Related articles

• Review: "The Informationist" by Taylor Stevens 2011 (dirtysexybooks.com)
• (3/2011) Book Review: The Informationist By Taylor Stevens (basilandspice.com)
• Two new talents and an old favorite (boston.com)

Art in many different forms: Paper Engineering & Glass Art

Pop-ups! They're Not JUST for Kids from Bowdoin College on Vimeo.

Dale Chihuly does amazing things with glass. See the documentary, "Gardens and Glass" about some of his glass installations.