When It's Time to Rewrite your Novel....Again

I decided to take a short break from the "What is..." series. If you have suggestions (the brief hiatus from it may or may not be due to a lack of ideas), please leave them in the comments or use the new handy-dandy contact form in the left-hand column.

From here.

For the first time in a while, I've remembered that writing, like life, isn't easy. It might seem easy to sit down and write a good novel when the letters are flying and I know what my characters are going to do...but those moments don't last long.

I've been editing a novel for a good chunk of the summer and into the fall (It's the second book in my Christian dystopian series that I've been working on over the course of a few years). This wasn't the first time I've edited it.

The whole summer, I thought to myself that it was going well. That writing was easy. That I could just put in a bit of effort and it would fix itself. I chalked off the nagging feeling that something wasn't right to my inner editor not being given her allotted amount of chocolate for working overtime.

I edited it once and wasn't happy with it. I took some time off, re-read it, and decided that it still needed just a bit of something. I edited it again.

Perhaps I wasn't happy with it, but my inner editor was exhausted. Three months of work and she hadn't been given extra coffee, better chocolate, or vacation time. And I didn't want to look at it again. I'd edited it three times. Shouldn't that be enough? How many red pens had to spill their life's blood for the sake of one novel? Surely it'd be fine.

I sent it off to my wonderful critique partner, Victoria, who gently told me what I didn't want to hear.

I still have a lot of work ahead of me.

She put the words to the nagging feeling that had plagued me all summer. Words that I wanted to throw away, but couldn't deny their truth.

The feeling that I couldn't get the pacing right? She nailed it on the head--no climax and my characters acting like a handful of houseplants (my words, not hers). The feeling that I couldn't figure out where my characters were going? It helps when your characters have goals.

She saw what I didn't want to see and didn't shy away from telling me about it. (And I wouldn't have it any other way, either. Critiques are only useful if they're honest and constructive. And she was super nice about it).

I don't know if this is what Hemingway meant about sitting at a typewriter bleeding, but I feel like it could be. I left my life's blood on the page and more is required. Elbow grease is expensive to buy, but sometimes it's the only thing that works when you have a broken manuscript.

So it might be back to the drawing board. I'm debating investing in a larger white board  to draw stuff out. I've already got three colors of neon sticky notes in my drawer that have been slotted for enlistment into the editing armada.

I'll need some time to get away from the story a bit. My poor, whimpering inner editor has earned that, at the very least. So for now, I'm plotting something different for NaNo.

But come December 1st (or Christmas break, depending on scheduling), it'll be time to roll up the sleeves again. My inner editor will have had a couple months of much-needed chocolate and coffee vacation time in her office (I think the only time she leaves is to buy more red pens).

It'll be back to the drawing board. Back to the blood-covered typewriter. Back to writing a story I love and making sure it gets told the way it deserves.

Until then, it's time for a fresh story and some more blogging.

(Also, you should check out Victoria's blog, because she's also an awesome blogger).

What is an Inner Editor?

I don't know that I've talked about it on here yet, but many authors frequently refer to their "inner editor". What strange beast is this and why do writers seem to alternately love and hate it?

Have you ever tried to type an email, only to keep re-writing it half a dozen times in the middle of actually writing it? Change a word here, rephrase a sentence there, correct a minor grammatical error in paragraph one--and do you sign with "Sincerely" or "Thanks"--and did you use perhaps a few too many times? Essentially, your cursor keeps running back and forth across the page like it's trying to get in the best shape of its life.

That's the result of your inner editor. You're constantly tweaking whatever you're trying to write--editing it--while still trying to write it. And how productive is that?

It's not terribly unproductive if you only have to compose a three paragraph email or a three hundred word blog article or college essay,  but it's pretty near impossible to complete an entire fifty thousand manuscript if you leave your inner editor turned on.

The inner editor is a persnickety beast. (Personally, I imagine her as an old lady with blond hair, rhinestone glasses, and red fingernails who likes to purse her lips at my writer self and shake her head sadly, clucking, "Now, now, that won't do." And then she gets out her huge red pen and makes my manuscript bleed.) She (or he) likes to tell you to fix things while you're still writing.

When she does this, you must politely decline and shut the door to her office so that she doesn't bother you. She's going to scream and shout and pound on the door until you let her out with her armada of red pens. And she's going to be cranky when she does come out. But, to finish a rough draft, sometimes you have to lock her away while you're still writing it.

Now, your inner editor can also be a good friend (sometimes she just needs taming with some chocolate or coffee to calm her down to a normal, less frantic state). But, you have to let her out only at certain times or she'll crush your inspiration. That's not conducive to writing. But make a friend out of your inner editor when you're actually editing. She's a valuable resource, rhinestone glasses and all.

Do you struggle with your inner editor? Any suggestions for "What is..." articles?