Z is for Zephyr in the A to Z of revising

Sometimes we must let the cool breeze of a Zephyr wind blow over us  - we need to be refreshed in our Zealous journey to create a novel, we need to put aside our Zest for the word, Zip our mouths and understand that there is Zilch that we need to do. We need  to steal some much needed ZZZZZs - stand back from our manuscript and with a cool Zinger, tell ourselves that there is no need for us to become Zowerswopped!*  

* grumpy or ill-natured, from old English.

Y is for Yoked to the Story in the A to Z of revising

Yoked to the story - when we hear the word yoked, we usually hear it as a bad thing. It is to be enslaved, to be bound tight with a force you do not want. But sometimes we pick up the yoke and put its harness on our own shoulders. If I want to turn the mill to grind the flour and my poor mule has died, well then, I may freely choose to put the yoke's harness upon myself and do the work.

Sometimes, during the arduous process of revising, I want someone else to wear the yoke - but it is mine and it is best if I fully acknowledge that. No one needs my story - there are plenty of them out there - it was my choice to begin this venture and if I want others to be able to read this story (and I do) then I must yoke myself to it until it is finished. In this case, I surrender to its needs, not my own. How to make this story live? Not by abandoning it before it breathes.

X marks the spot in the A to Z of revising

X marks the spot and it is marked on the chair in front of your desk, and it is where your bum goes. Do not wait for the muse. Mark an x on your chair and sit down. If you sit there every day - your revision will get done, if only through pure boredom. Make it so!


Here is my 2016 version of X in revising:

X is for using your x-ray vision

Oh! Remember Superman and how he wouldn't use his x-ray vision for most of the things we would? Well now I want you to use yours. I know you have it  -  at least with your own manuscripts. I want you to remember to look below your words. Our words are like a skin on the body of the work. Like our own skin - our outer organ - it is often mistaken for the whole thing.

What? If my novel isn't words what is it?

It is what the words are protecting and transporting. And that my friend is emotion, insight, and intention. It has to be there or your words won't ring authentic. If we write at all we write to move others - to get them to understand what we understand, to feel what we feel, to see what we see.

When we think of our loved ones, our babies, our lovers, our friends, our family - do we think 'my oh my they have such lovely exteriors that I don't care if they are empty inside!' ? No - or not at least when we are over 14 years old (or reluctant adults holding on to a view of the world that isn't of interest to most of us).

If I feel my interest starting to flag, my eyes drooping, when I'm reading or listening to someone tell a story, I know there is a lie in there. It has ceased to be authentic. That is my x-ray vision at work. If I'm with a client (I'm a psychotherapist) I will jerk myself awake and say to the client 'hey what are you telling me? Something isn't right."  Nine times out of ten I am right. We locate the truth (usually hidden behind fear) and get it out. You must use your x-ray vision on your manuscript. When you feel bored or duped - stop and fix or at least mark it for a later fix (but if not now- when?)

So fire up your super powers of observation and x-ray your ms.  Here is Bella for no reason!

W is for Word Choice in the A to Z of revising

WORD CHOICE seems like an odd thing to focus on, unless you are a writer and you are revising. What else do writers do but choose words?  When we are writing our first hot run through we may throw any word down - just to hold the place. We might call a sunset beautiful. It may be beautiful, but it is unlikely we'll leave it like that in revision. We choose our words carefully during revision. Every word should be hauling its weight and more. We should look at a word as if we were planning a dinner party - each guest must have something to add or no invite.  In a novel you might have around 80 thousand words so there is quite a bit of choosing to do. You might think, that unlike poetry, you can afford some bumf, but you'd be wrong. For instance, I just chose the word bumf (which can also be spelled bumph). It means extra paper - documents etc... so isn't exactly the correct word - but it is the right word. Why? Because readers will understand the meaning as I've intended it, and they will like the sound of it. It has a satisfying mouth feel and it isn't cliche.

If you are a writer you'd best like words. Shakespeare invented over 1700 of our common words by changing nouns into verbs, changing verbs into adjectives and putting different words together in new ways. You can invent words (I did it all the time as a child) and you don't have to be a genius to get away with it. Perhaps you do. Hard to say. But why not leap into it? The point is to make your words work. If they won't pick up the shovel, then give them the old heave-ho. Heave-hoify them - see what I did there?


Now I must get to my own revising. I'm a few days away from getting this draft done and then I'll have two weeks to shine it up. See you on the flip side!

 

V is for vary in the A to Z of revising

Vary your tone, vary your rhythm, vary your intensity, vary your pace, vary your humour, vary your seriousness, vary your lights and darks, vary the length of your sentences, paragraphs, and chapters.

To vary all the elements of your writing will require that you read aloud, often, and that you find a natural way to work with variance. I watched the series Shetland with my partner in the beginning of this year, and I became far too aware of when things were going to happen. I said to Ron at one point, "it's been ten minutes - time for someone to wander through a dark hall or house soon - which may or may not end with a bad guy leaping out - but will give us that little adrenaline bump the writers think we need."  In other words, don't make your inconsistencies too consistent!

The revision is the time to check for these changes in rhythm and intensity. Even when writing a thriller, it is good to give the reader a little break from time to time. Intersperse your murders with a great description of your detective eating a kitchen-sink sandwich. ( Lawrence Sanders) Or break up your critique of social mores with a description of a drawing room in a stately home.(Evelyn Waugh)

To vary does not mean to change your style suddenly, however. It means to work within your style but provide contrasting tones. If your whole novel sounds like the ranting of a vindictive lunatic, you will have achieved an effect - but is it the one you want? Even whiny teenagers are sometimes gentle and sweet. If you think variety isn't important consider reading something in which everything is in italics - or those goons who write comments only in caps. Gah!

Variety is the spice of life - it is indeed life itself. Every species depends on it, so it is no surprise it is a necessity in one's writing.

T is for tempo in the A to Z of revising

Tempo is the rhythm of your writing. To quote one of my favourite authors, Ursula K. Le Guin, "Good prose does have a stress-rhythm, subtle and complex and changing though it may be. Dull prose, clunky narrative, hard-to-read textbook stuff, lacks the rhythm that catches and drives and moves the reader's body and mind and heart. "  To see what she means - read the quote out loud - her rhythm is there. The tempo that we write in is like a fingerprint. We all have our own inner song, when we  release it, no one could deny it. If you are fairly well-read, you will recognize an author's writing by reading a few sentences.

"They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country. But in modern war there is nothing sweet nor fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason."


"Before  them rose Bree hill barring the way, a dark mass against misty stars: and under its western flank nestled a large village. Towards it they now hurried, desiring only to find a fire, and a door between them and the night."

" "Ourselves," she murmured. And retrieving some glint of faith from the grey waters, hopefully, without much help from reason, she followed the fish; the speckled, streaked and blotched; seeing in that vision beauty, power, and glory in ourselves."


Hemingway, Tolkien, and Woolf.

How does  one use the idea of tempo in revising? By reading aloud. Every word. Your ear will tell you where it fails. Then go in and see why it is failing. Did you get sleepy at some point? Are you doing an info dump? Both of these will be indicated by what you hear. One of my psychotherapy teachers told his students that when the therapist felt sleepy, the client was spinning a story - not telling a truth. I think the same is true in our writing - if we aren't sure of what we are after, we will write in a plodding or frivolous fashion. Check it out and see if I'm right. I also think that your tempo, your rhythm, holds your style. And style, like your handwriting, arises out of everything you know and feel, and cannot be created, but must grow. 

S is for Scene-work in the A to Z of revising

SCENE-WORK  is a vital part of the revising process. It is, in fact, just about the whole thing. For me, each beat of the story is what I would call a scene. Each scene must have a purpose and that purpose must be met or the scene must go. Even if you are writing a huge novel - every scene must make sense. It must further the plot, provide some reasoning for actions that occur, flash-back to some story that impacts the main one, develops a character and so on. That doesn't mean that each scene must be a riveting chase scene - even a book that is a bucolic romp must be comprised of scenes that add to that romp. This is easy to see when you are writing a poem - but it is no less important in a full-length novel. Now, my first writing was as a playwright. Every scene must be packed with story - to carry the plot in what is usually an hour and a half. And it is all action and dialogue. You probably suggest what the scenery should look like, and the costumes etc... but at the point of production you have a TEAM that weighs in on everything. And I mean everything! 

One of the downfalls of doing NaNoWriMo months (where you write a short first draft of your novel) is that you will tend (if you are me) to bumpf up your numbers with stuff that doesn't belong - especially if you are a pantser (as opposed to a plotter, a pantser writes the story as they go along - by the seat of their pants). So revising means a lot of pruning. Lots of scenes that have no purpose and have to go to land fill (virtual that is).

If you are revising - once you have your structure in place - the big picture seen to - get down and dirty with each scene - each word needs to count. 

Scene-work - the heart blood of the work.

R is for Resolve in the A to Z of Revising

RESOLVE is a strong word. It can be a verb, as in "I will resolve to finish this plot or die trying," or it can be a noun "It is my strong resolve to finish this  novel."

It is interesting to look at the word in connection with revision.

Re - vision  Re - solve

 The etymology of revision is, of course, to see again. In the example of my current work it is too see again and again and again. But hey, I'm not complaining...well, maybe a little.

The etymology of resolve is more complex - I include it below to show this, as I cannot figure  out how to say it! To have granite resolve, one must break down one's ideas to their essential elements. Huh?

resolve (v.)

late 14c., "melt, dissolve, reduce to liquid;" intransitive sense from c. 1400; from Old French resolver or directly from Latin resolvere "to loosen, loose, unyoke, undo; explain; relax; set free; make void, dispel," from re-, perhaps intensive, or "back" (see re-), + solvere "to loosen, untie, release, explain," from PIE *se-lu-, from reflexive pronoun *s(w)e- (see idiom) + root *leu- "to loosen, divide, cut apart."

From early 15c. as "separate into components," hence the use in optics (1785). Meaning "determine, decide upon" is from 1520s, hence "pass a resolution" (1580s). For sense evolution, compare resolute (adj.). Related: Resolved; resolving.

resolve (n.)

"determination, firmness or fixedness of purpose; a determination," 1590s, from resolve (v.).

However, I do somewhat understand, even if I can't explain it. 

Why do we need resolve in order to revise? Without a fixedness of purpose (see P) my determination fails and I dissolve into a mess of indecision.

So, I hereby resolve to work on my revision for two hours a day, until it is done!

Q is for quixotic in the A to Z of revising

QUIXOTIC is such a delightful word. Here is one dictionary definition -

quixotic (adj.)

"extravagantly chivalrous," 1791, from Don Quixote, romantic, impractical hero of Cervantes' satirical novel "Don Quixote de la Mancha" (1605; English translation by 1620). Don Quixote as the type of anyone attempting the impossible or holding impossible ideals is in English from 1670s. His name literally means "thigh," also "a cuisse" (a piece of armor for the thigh), in Modern Spanish quijote, from Latin coxa "hip" (see coxa). Related: Quixotical; quixotically.

and here's the Cambridge one -  having or showing ideas that are different and unusual but not practical or likely to succeed.

The definition of quixotic is romantic behavior or following beliefs even though they are foolish or unreachable goals.

Well, you get the idea.

And why should a writer be quixotic in her revision? Because the whole notion of writing a novel is inherently quixotic. Give in to it, I say. Also - Don Quixote de la Mancha by Cervantes is considered the first modern novel. If trying to tell a story within the form of a novel isn't attempting the impossible, I don't know what is. Yet, we do it, and succeed from time to time. What if we didn't give darn foolish things a chance? Where would this world be? 

Revision is hard work and in the midst of it many feel like chucking the whole venture. If I accept from the beginning that I am tilting against windmills, well then my energy won't flag. Instead, I'll think to myself, they say it can't be done, but I'm going to prove them wrong.

O is for open in the A to Z of revising

Open for anything...

This is a great way to think right now, in this time of world pandemic. We all need to keep ourselves open to whatever might happen. And that needs to be the same when revising. I need  to stay open for surprises, obstacles that need another approach, the story not unfolding how I want it to. I know this is true when I'm in the white-hot heat of creating the first draft - but it also needs to be true now. When I get scared and think that I have to revise this manuscript to fit some solid notion of how a "good" story goes, I lose my nerve, and I lose the ability to swerve and dance and play with what is before me.  Yesterday I lost my nerve for a bit. I went into the wonderful resource The Writer's Knowledge Base and looked up plot structure. I found a great article by Jami Gold  that has Elizabeth Davis' spread sheet on  the 'Save the Cat Beat Sheets Spread Sheets for Novelists' . I plunked in my info - mainly word count and page numbers and let it tell me when things 'should' happen. Things like 'All is Lost' should happen on page #'s xxx to xxy. I usually don't do that, because I mostly trust my intuition. And if I was way off would I want to know? But I was freaked out. Would I have to undo the whole thing? Start over? Deep-six the thing?
Well, guess what? I don't need to do any of this - because my intuition is still working. My beats are hitting pretty much when they are supposed to and I can use the spreadsheet to fine tune what I've got and help me sail into the ending I want for my story. Whew! If I hadn't been open to trying something different I would really have been churning in the mud of despair.

Now, excuse me, but I've got work to do!

N is for Navigating Your Course in the A to Z of revising

Navigating Your Course

What do I mean by navigating your course? Well, not sure about you, but because I'm a pantser my first draft is all over the place. I have characters who need to find a job or get lost; plot bits that are like symbols in a dream (I know there is a reason they came out of my head but what?); and a structure that needs real shoring up. To do so I must constantly be checking where it is I want to get to in this revision. I need to keep checking my co-ordinates to make sure I'm on course to have a draft that tells the whole story and in the right order. I do that in a number of ways - I keep checking my beat sheet to see that I'm paying attention to changes that I marked or questions that I had in various scenes. I check my back story - the one that I wrote after the first draft about what has been happening behind the scenes. I check my character studies to make sure I'm being true to their desires, thwarts and discoveries. And lastly, I write a synopsis. Yep, I do my synopsis late in the game - but the simple telling of the story really helps me make sure I'm sailing in the right direction. That's what I'm doing today. I'm stalled again near the end of my first draft - because the ending isn't right. I thought of writing my ending now and then going back to weave it in, but my intuition is that I'll be forcing something - so instead I'm going to try the synopsis approach. I'm so close - and I have thirty days of revising left - so really want this part done - the ending I mean - so I can go back and attend to a myriad of details both macro and micro. 

A Side Note about writing in the time of the plague 
As I said yesterday, I am struggling to stay focused. I want to watch the Great Canadian Baking Show and play a zillion games of solitaire (not online - haven't fallen into that hole yet). I'm trying to be both strict and kind with my self, but it is a tricky dance. This A to Z helps even if I only usually have one reader! (hi dear Margot!)  I was going to stop it because I realize that although I've signed up for it several times, I'm not on Lee's list (Lee is Arlee Bird who created the A to Z challenge over at Tossing It Out . Not sure what the hitch is, but I decided I would carry on anyway. The day to day checking in with my own revising process is working out well. Walking helps and I'm so glad we live in the country where I get to see deer and rabbits almost every day. But today it is raining and even the dog doesn't seem that interested. I will go forward with all my projects, the revision being the main one, but it feels like I'm walking through mud most days.

M is for macro and micro views in the A to Z of revising

Macro- view  Micro-view

What are these editing processes, you may ask. One of my most relied upon books during the revision process is Susan Bell's The Artful Edit. She talks about the process under two broad topics - macro and micro views. Macro is the big picture and micro is the details. Another way to think about it is when a scene is considered from the balcony (macro) or the floor (micro).  It would be great to say that you go through one process (macro) first and then follow it up with a close micro look. But that ain't how most folks do it. We go back and forth between the two - sometimes to our own peril, but nonetheless. 

The macro-view involves looking at intention, character, structure, foreshadowing, theme and continuity of tone.  

The micro-view involves language, repetition, redundancy, clarity, authenticity, continuity, show and tell, beginnings, endings,transitions. Whew! Just reading that made my head swim. 

I'm putting most of my attention right now on macro type things - mainly the structure and intention. I, of course, can't help but look at the language while I do so and try to clear up repetitions and produce a clarity with how I say things. Sometimes I think of this like building a house (my fella is a house builder, so it comes naturally). There is no point in decorating walls that might not be in the building once it is done. Sometimes I can't help it - I might not know that something in the plot doesn't serve my story until I've tinkered about with it - moving a scene here and there, strengthening the language, layering in the themes - but at some point I will realize that the pig won't fly, no matter what sort of tutu I force it into, and I'll let it go. 


Pandemic journal: I cannot just pretend  this is another April and share these ideas of mine and others as if everything is just ticking along. So...hello in there, whatever in you happen to be in. I'm having a tough time focusing on my revision - these little posts are actually quite helpful in reminding me of what I want to get done - all the same, it is rough sledding. I hope whatever you and yours are up to that you remember what is important on the planet now and forevermore. For me it is my spiritual practice, the love I feel for everyone, and my creative life. Falling into despair will not help others and it sure won't help me - so I keep on truckin' with a few more breaks than I'd normally give myself. 

Be well good people!

L is always for lamé in the A to Z of revising

lamé  - this is an old post of mine that is one of my favorites, and appears to be a fave among a certain crowd too. So why not use it again!

Here are ten things I know for sure about writing:


1. If you are the kind of person who doesn't like to be told what to do - your protagonists will resist your efforts to make them behave. It's weird - almost like they came from you and weren't born free of your influence. Wait a minute...

2. Life in all its wild chaotic nowness will rise up and lay a beating on you if you try to ignore it for your manuscript. And knowing it won't be half the problem solved.

3. A woman will come to you in your dreams wearing a fantastic outfit of that weird sparkling fabric from the sixties. Silver or gold lamé. That's it. She will insist on you feeling the fabric. She wants to be in your novel. Don't let her in. She'll drive you crazy and so will that itchy stuff.

4. You might not like Neil Young - I really don't think I'd like to spend a whole bunch of time with him - but he is a narrative genius. I want to know what happens to him when he's wandering lonely on the highway. I do. And he understands pace and mood and style.

5. In the middle of the night when the woman in the fabulous lamé comes calling you will wake up and lie there wondering if anyone truly truly knows what plot, story and structure are. And you'll be sure, because it is the middle of the night, that anyone does but you do not.

6. After you finish fretting about plot, story and structure you'll move on to wondering if you haven't been lying to yourself about everything to do with your writing. You'll also wonder what the slinky shiny material is called. You won't remember that it is lamé until the next day and even then you might need to spend an inordinate amount of time on google trying to find it. Time you could be spending on your plot, story and structure for instance.

7. Even though you know all experiences are treasure for your work-in-progress you will be perplexed as to how you can use your new understanding of various strange and out-of-date fibres in a plot where clothing of any sort has barely been mentioned and then it was describing First Nation's dance regalia. Perhaps you need to bring in another character, you'll think! It might solve all your plot, story and structure issues. Well it might! Just like having a baby with your philandering gambling alcoholic husband might help your marriage. Well it might!

8. When your head hits your pillow after a good day in those long dug out ditches that guys fought in WWII - what are they called? Oh, yes, trenches, after a long day in the revisioning trenches you will fall asleep like a baby and the answer to your plot, story, structure problem will come to you intact in a dream. The woman in the lamé outfit (her fifth one!) will explain it to you perfectly. You will feel so relieved. Until you wake up and you realize that she told you the key was that god backwards spells dog. Oh yes. It will happen.

9. You will rise none the less and you will work in your optimum time of day for success. You will eat good healthy brain food and you will stop only to do your pilates or your yoga (where are those tapes - damn it) or take your dog for a much needed walk because hey, he didn't ask you to be a writer now did he?You will find your groove because you've read King and Koch and Lamott and you know it is showing up that counts and the heck with the muse. It's work for heaven's sake not a calling. And you will churn out the work, the shitty first draft or the clarity revision or the final draft or whatever mixture of those three plus the diversions you've taken allow you to call it. Because you are a writer. And you will sleep the sleep of the just.

10. You will awake after sleeping the sleep of the just and look at your previous day's work even though Elizabeth S-C told you NOT TO and it will be brilliant! No it won't. But there will be threads of brilliance in amongst the dog puke and it will simply have to do. 

And that is what I know for sure.

K is for kick-ass approach in the A to Z of revision

Kick-ass approach

What is a kick-ass approach to revising? I have no idea. I think what I might mean, in this far-fetched stretch of meaning, is to have a take-no-prisoners attitude to your revision. At some point, one must simply do the job without constantly self-doubting the approach. My old man would've said "pitter-patter let's fly atter" and that is close to what I mean, only it starts with P and today's letter is K. I just looked back to my 2015 A to Z of revising and guess what? Yep, I used kick-ass. Well...sue me! I note that I also referenced pitter-patter - so I really haven't changed much in five years. At least I'm revising a different book. I really need, at this point, more of a kick in the ass as opposed to a kick-ass attitude. Oh, well. These are such bizarre times that I think I won't get to mad at myself. I am coming along - but it is taking some amount of futzing about each and every day.

J is for journaling in the A to Z of revising

ournaling

I have been attempting (not always successfully) to journal during this revision process. It seems odd to use free writing as a tool in such a left-brain exercise, but it truly helps when I get stuck. It isn't for anyone but me, and I rarely look back at it. At the beginning of this revision I tried journaling every day. That was good for a bit, then I stopped for some reason I cannot remember. I probably just forgot and then going back to remember what it was that had happened became a rather wasteful exercise. But, I'm still journaling - only more organically. How does it help? It is like a conversation with a really good friend, who understands the whole project so far, and is (fairly) non-judgmental. Like all free writing, it allows thoughts to push to the surface that I've ignored for some reason. There are no stupid ideas in journaling - so the cascade of thoughts can pour out - like a waterfall that hasn't been dammed. Sometimes that torrent releases the blocks that have been stopping me - blocks usually comprised of fear.  Because no one will see this but me, I allow myself to penetrate those fears without censure. Once released on the page they lose their ability to stop my work. 

I is for irrational in the A to Z of revising

rrational

Irrational? Yep. It is without a doubt a completely irrational move to attempt a novel at all, let alone taking an unwieldy mess and trying to revise it. One must be mad to attempt something so crazy. And yet millions do, and boy, as a reader am I glad they do. So when I get feeling like tossing the whole thing in the bin, I say to myself - let's just do this - it is crazy - a long-shot, a bad bet, clearly a waste of time - but hey - let's do it anyway. Irrational? You betcha!

H is for humble in the A to Z of revising

umble

Humble? Yes, humble. Right now I have lots of reasons to remain humble. I'm stuck at a place I've been stuck before. It isn't writer's block. It isn't lack of ideas. So what is it? It is plot f!@#$%kedupness. It is writing when I don't have a plan and it just plain gets me in trouble, but here I am again! In trouble. Because I was a clever boots and wrote all this stuff I now have to dismantle and possibly abandon. So, away from that moan and back to humble. 

I'm writing about a community in northern Canada. It's a mystery set on a reserve. I worked on that reserve, and became more and more aware of what I didn't know. I thought I understood the concerns of the first nations peoples of this country, but I knew shite. I thought I understood problems like loss of language, the continued oppression of aboriginal people, poverty on reserves, suicide, drugs, and those who profit off such a situation - but again, I knew nothing. What did I learn after five years. I know nothing. But, at least I know I know nothing. My mind is now open to being surprised, because I know I know nothing. 

How to revise - by keeping my mind open because whatever I think I know, I don't. 

So now back to it.

Sorry I was late today. I was mired in self-doubt. I get there when I've sufficiently fooled myself into thinking I know something that I don't know. When that becomes obvious I rebel by getting sooky. Then I remember that knowing I know nothing, is a swell place to be. Whew! I'm back there...

G is for gratitude in the A to Z of revising

rateful

At this point in my revision I definitely need to employ my sense of gratefulness.  For whom or what am I most grateful? Well, to my partner who knows if I drift off in the middle of a conversation, it is because the fairies have stolen me. No, it's because I'm considering my manuscript and wondering if I just...  And I'm grateful to my pals who must be sick of hearing about my writing but still ask how it's going. I'm grateful to my writing pal of over twenty years, Gwen, who will listen to me go on and on - as I will her. And I'm grateful to my online pals, who know what this is like and support me with good cheer again and again. Big shout out to Margot who is simply the best!!!

I'm also grateful to all the writers who have written so many words about the process I'm undergoing - who have written about beat cheats and dialogue and character development and how to do micro-edits and how to do macro-edits and where to turn to for help if I get into a swamp and the crocodiles are coming. I'm grateful for their generosity at sharing their craft and their word of encouragement and truth. I have a deep appreciation for Anne Lamott, Mary Karr, Susan Bell, Elizabeth George, James Scott Bell, Stephen King, Renni Browne, Dave King, Stephen Koch, Joseph Sestito, Ursula K. Le Guin, Strunk and White, Natalie Goldberg, John Gardner, and Victoria Nelson.

I'm grateful to my Buddhist teachers, who, even in this time of terrible turmoil, remind me to stay kind, and to ignore the demands of my poor little ego - who wants to rush ahead for glory instead of staying the course because I have a story to tell. 

And I'm grateful to be in a good home, with a loving partner, my mind and body still functioning, and able to plug along.

F is for fearless in the A to Z of revising

EARLESS

Yes! a writer must become fearless in the act of revising. Not reckless - no, meticulous really - but still fearless. Every minute of revising is filled with so many decisions, and they cannot be put off until later. You might make the wrong decision (so hard to know, really) but still, a decision must be made. Will you leave this bit in - the bit about the fable that is told by the old wise woman - or will you admit, for once, that even though you think it is a completely clever piece of writing - it has no place in the novel you are writing? Will you include a suspect that you didn't have before, thus requiring whole sections of your ms to be moved about, kind of like deciding to put in another wee little study room in your house after all the walls and plumbing and wires are in place. I cannot emphasize enough - there is no later when it comes to revising. Later is now. Emblazon that on your heart. Later is now and you must meet the day with the full urgency of that truth. Now get  to it!

E is for endurance

ndurance

Endurance you say! Yes, revising is an endurance sport. Like long-distance running or lake swimming (as in swimming across a lake - a wonderful sport beyond my ken at this point). Once begun, one must endure, even if you feel your energy lagging. It helps massively to have a deadline, even if self-imposed and without any threat to health or property. I have one, this time around, as I've engaged an editor to help me get this ms in ship-shape for selling. I will have had roughly seventy days to get this from first draft and details (beat sheets, character analysis, and back story)  to 2nd draft. I have about forty days to go. Eep. At that point I will send it off to the editor and she will go through it with a comprehensive edit. Then back to me for changes, and I have a few worthy types who will give it a copy edit. Then, hopefully, out! During these few months of the revision, I have to keep plugging, day by day, making sure I'm not spinning my wheels in the mud of weird plot points, and moving towards that finish line. 

I did the Dublin marathon when I was fifty - walking, but it is just as long. the main struggle is with your mind. My body can walk that long, but my mind tries to convince me it can't. Working on a novel altogether is an endurance sport. I can write a poem in a couple of days - maybe revise it a few times and done. Even a full-length play can be done fairly quickly. A short-story takes awhile, but truly - no comparison. With this novel I got 80 thousand words done in two months. But it has been simply years of frigging around since then. Now I can see the finish line and I must keep my pace steady - work in my splits - I know near the end I'll have more energy, not less, so might get more done. I've figured it out intuitively so far - that I will slowly build up to working longer each day, and give myself time to fall, get stuck on a plot point, etc... by building in more time than I need. Endurance is a mental game - not panicking and working too hard and burning out, but developing a pace that suits my temperament, age and desire!  

Here is a photo of the Dublin 2002 race. I'm in there somewhere. I'm wearing green if that helps!