Writing A Novel - Revision

A couple of months ago I enrolled in an online Revision workshop with a bunch of other people writing a novel over at Savvy Authors. Due to my wonky health, I was unable to keep up with the work all the way through, but even the little I learned from the beginning lessons was invaluable. Cathy Yardley was our instructor and the first thing she asked us to do was to go through our entire manuscript and write our GMCD for every single scene.

This was overwhelming and considerably enlightening. It is the reason that I realized it was time for me to move on to a new novel. Through the GMCD lens my in-expertise was glaringly obvious. I discovered by the end of that process that, while my story was okay, the conflict wasn't engaging enough.

What is GMCD?

If you are like I was when I first started the course, then you may have seen this "GMCD" thing thrown around on the Internet, but you still have no idea what it is. Here's how GMCD works (my cliffs notes version):

• declare who's POV the scene is in.
• G - GOAL: what is the goal for that character in that scene?
• M - MOTIVATION: what is the character's motivation to do whatever he/she is doing?
• C - CONFLICT: what is the conflict in the scene?
• D/R -DISASTER?RESOLUTION: what is the disaster at the end of the scene that keeps us hanging on for the next scene escalating the conflict? Or, what is the resolution of the conflict?

This is a labor intensive project to undertake for an entire novel, but looking at your story through this bare bones outline, without all those words and sentences you fell in love with, can truly show you what you may need to work on.

What Did I Learn? 
 
In each of my scenes my goal and motivation was clear, but the conflicts were oftentimes weak and I think I had more resolutions than disasters. It's just something I have to work on. I ultimately stepped away from that novel because I was too attached to the story as it was. In order to escalate the conflict to the point necessary to hold my audience's interest would transform the entire storyline in a way that I am currently unable to do. Instead, after two years of battling with the same story, I decided to take this newly understood information to help me with a brand new project.

Where To Learn More

I wish I had it in me to go through the entire course. However, all is not lost! Cathy Yardley's two books that review her process, and she has an awesome blog called Rock Your Writing. If you are battling with a project and you are not sure what exactly is missing, I recommend you take a stab at this process to see if it reveals something to you!

               

Thanks for reading!

What has revision revealed to you?

Do you have a process for revising that has been successful for you?

Fighting to Finish

Neil Gaiman

In November 2011 I participated in NaNoWriMo and "finished" a novel. It's an interesting way to put it because all I did was write a first draft. The novel itself was far from finished.

When I sat down to edit in 2012 I signed up for a critique workshop online and joined a writing group that met locally to help me along my path.

Mark each as a fail.

The online workshop was a bust (some confusion with the workshop leader) and the local writing group was inconsistent at best. I was floundering and, without a support system, I filled my days with other distractions. I needed eyes other than my own to read my words, and loved ones just wouldn't do in this situation.

This Fall I went into a deep writing hibernation that extended even into my blogging (as is evident with a quick glance at the sidebar). I wrote in my journal and other notebooks, started a bunch of new stories and came up with ideas for new novels (two that I am really excited about), but I typed nothing. I also read a lot. I read novels and graphic novels, for sure, but I also read about writing. I was searching for... something.

In the interim, Nail Gaiman seemed to be popping up all over. And over and over again his one bit of advice would tear out among the rest: FINISH. Every time I'd hear (or read) him say it I'd feel a fire shoot up my spine: What am I doing? I'd feel guilty about my abandoned love,  Why can't I finish? Then, last week, when I was watching John and Hank Green's "An Evening Of Awesome At Carnegie Hall" event on YouTube while reorganizing my entire living room and dining room, he showed up again.

There, on my giant TV Mr. Gaiman, was doling out writing advice to an audience of Nerdfighters. Of course, I knew he wasn't really talking to them, he was telling me that I should FINISH things. He said that I would learn so much more from a finished project that's a failure than a whole bunch of unfinished fantastic ones.

Repetition works. I know this. As a teacher I employed this daily - repeat, repeat, repeat - no one gets it the first time. So there I was, a student of Mr. Gaiman's, and after being pummeled in the head countless times, the lesson was finally seeping in... I stood there, covered in a flock of dust bunnies and realized I owed it to myself to see Dear 302, my first draft from NaNoWriMo 2011, all the way through to its end. I had to take action.

Strange things happen when you have moments like those; it's like the universe is waiting for them in order to pour opportunities over your head. That Thursday the good people at NaNoWriMo hosted a "What Now?" twitter chat where the topic of beta readers came up. As a first step, I volunteered as a beta reader for who ever would have me, just to get myself reconnected to my online writing community.

It worked.

I am a beta reader for two NaNoPals. While reading, I continued my own rewriting and editing, and, in turn, felt confident enough to throw some of my pages out into the ether. The comments came back this morning. They're awesome! I feel like I'm "in it" again and ready to go all the way this time.

To add to the excitement, I just found out this week that the online critique workshop I was in last year was such a flop I have been offered a refund and free admission to a new workshop hosted by the site. The timing is perfect. I was not ready for this any earlier.

So here I go again, back into the deep end. The newbie novelist learning as she goes. Wish me luck!

Writing A Novel - Now I Understand

Until recently, the thought of seeing the deleted scenes from a finished movie meant only one thing to me: lots of laughs! I would look to these clips for the bloopers, the pranks, the sneak peeks of the actors I admired behaving out of character and maybe, just maybe, a little more like themselves. It was with this expectation that I entered into viewing the deleted scenes of The Muppets about a month ago. I was not ready for the incredible writer's "A-Ha! Moment" I would receive from watching all that did not make it into one of my favorite movies of 2011.

It goes without saying that many of the scenes were funny and that some were bloopers (human and muppet alike!), however, having sat through every single scene on the "Play All" feature right after watching the full length film, I was surprised by how many of the scenes had nothing to do with the movie at all! Let me rephrase that, they could have had something to do with the movie, but not the way it turned out. These scenes were not just cut from the film, their omission either resulted in, or from, a major rewrite of the script.

O-M-G!

I know, I know, you're reading this and saying, "Duh, Nicole! What's the big deal?!"

The big deal is that it was that Muppet moment, for some reason, that my rose-tinted glasses were finally smashed. Slowly some thoughts crept into the corners of my mind,  

When Jason Segel and Nick Stoller wrote "The Muppets," they didn't think it was perfect, was the first thought...

Then slowly (sometimes I'm a bit dense...), They must've looked at it and thought that the only way it could be fixed was if they rewrote pieces...

And then here's where the BIG connect comes in, I bet if I rewrite pieces of my novel I can fix it!

Having read Stephen King, Anne Lamott and Marion Roach Smith's books on writing since finishing my first draft, as well as being a part of writing communities and chatting it up with numerous new writing friends, this is a fact I knew, but (I can now see) did not understand. There is an enormous gap between knowing something and understanding something; I am incredibly grateful that I have finally bridged it.

Here is what I understand: 

• I understand that it is not my weakness as a writer or my amateur status in this role that accounts for the state my novel is in; it is the fact that it has not been cared for since first being splashed on the page.
• I understand that getting the story out is only part of the work and that the other part, the editing part, is much more than correcting typos, spelling, grammar and fluidity of sentences.
• I understand that I will have to "kill my darlings" even though there is no death scene in my novel, nor shall there be cause for one.
• I understand that writing is an art, in the same way my teaching was: a beautiful, fun effortless-looking output from countless unspoken sleepless nights spent researching, creating, rewriting, perfecting but filled with giddy excitement every step of the way.
• I understand that I am new to this, that I am learning, but I can do this.

I'm looking forward to the weeks ahead. While I've been extra sick as of late (thank you very much stealthy kidney stone no one asked for!), I am hoping the worst of it is behind me and that I can bumble back to my sloth-like existence of pseudo-healthy (two chronic diseases I can handle!) and truly hit the books. I'm taking part in a Savvy Authors online workshop on constructive criticism that I hope will help me in my own writing as well as my participation in the StoryDam community. It should be fun (read: *absolutely terrifying*) to share some of my chapters with people in my class to get constructive criticism on them: WISH ME LUCK!

Hoping everyone else in ROW80 is doing well with their writing goals this round.
 

Realizing This is My Cocoon to Eat

It occurred to me this week that I am stuck. Just like a butterfly in a cocoon, I have made it through the beginning stages of my metamorphosis, then wrapped myself up really tight and secure for the final transformation and have been unable to budge since.

To become a butterfly, there are four stages of life. First there is an egg, then the larva (what I typically call the caterpillar), the chrysallis (the cocoon) and then, finally, there is a butterfly.

Writing can be looked at in the same four stage process. We begin with an idea, which, much like an egg, has the potential for life if protected and handled with care. Then there is the outpouring of the idea, which Anne Lamott calls "the shitty first draft" and which Marion Roach Smith calls "the vomit draft," whoever you talk to it's icky, sticky and not unlike a caterpillar; it eats everything in sight, it's alive, but only beautiful to those who have unique vision; it is unfinished. After the outpouring comes the hardest work of all - the true metamorphosis - the editing phase. At this point of writing it is often advised that you pack away your work, let it be for a while and then return to tear it asunder. I can't help but think of that caterpillar sleeping in that cocoon, hidden from the world and then eating his way out of the cocoon bit by bit just to see the light of day again.

But when he does, he is something beautiful, something majestic and he can fly. This is the same thing with my writing. It will fly once it gets out of its cocoon.

The only problem is it seems I was waiting for help. Have you ever read the story of the butterfly who received help with getting out of his cocoon? He never finished developing. He couldn't fly. It is heartbreaking.

So, for Round 2 of ROW 80, I have one simple goal: I must edit my novel. I must take the time necessary to transform it from caterpillar to butterfly. Will I be done by the end of this round? I have no idea, but if I am not don't you dare try to pull me out of this cocoon before I am done!


Click here to support the rest of the writers in Round 2 of ROW80.