Maybe this post should be about the family I neglected the past few days before my project deadline. But no, it’s actually about a manuscript that I need to dust off and start working on again.
In the middle of the revisions for Pretty is as Pretty Dies, I wrote the next Myrtle Clover book for Midnight Ink. So about a year ago I started it, then I finished the first draft in February.
I fiddled with it in March and early April. But then, in April, I started working on the Memphis Barbeque series for Berkley. And I haven’t picked up the Myrtle Clover draft since.
Now the plan is that I submit this manuscript in November to Midnight Ink. That gives me two months to really make it shine. I can rewrite any passages I’m not pleased with, or even chuck huge parts of it and overhaul it. It’s enough time.
Simultaneously, of course, I’ll be concocting Lulu’s further adventures in Memphis for Berkley’s book two.
I don’t think this will be a problem. (Okay, I’m putting this in print. So if I start wigging out in a month or so, remind me.) After all, revisions and drafting a manuscript are two completely different processes. I’ll revise part of the day and I’ll be creative the rest.
I’m really, really curious to pick up the Myrtle Clover book today. I’ve got to find the USB drive it’s on, actually—my laptop’s OS was blown away and reinstalled several times since April. And I’ve gone through two laptops since then. Got to get my hands on the right backup drive.
I wonder what mistakes will jump off the page at me. I wonder if the jokes will be as funny as they were when I wrote them, or if I’ll frown and groan and rewrite them.
This is my plan for reacquainting myself with the manuscript:
Read it all the way through.
Make notes of only big problems. Don’t micro-revise on the first reading.
How strong is the basic plot premise? Are there any big holes? Does anything not make sense?
Have I reintroduced these characters? Have I made it balanced enough so that first-time readers can get to know them and earlier readers won’t get tired of back story?
Have these characters grown and changed since the first book?
Is the basic timeline sound?
Do the characters sound like themselves?
This is the first time I’ve put a manuscript down for this long and then come back to it. Usually, if it’s put away for five months, then it’s in my little manuscript graveyard. But it was only circumstance that made me put this project away. Now I’m excited to read it again with fresh eyes—at first to get reacquainted and then critically.
Do you ever put your projects on the back burner? Does it help? Can you pick up on your original train of thought and plan for the book again?
A little secret…I have a full romance novel finished except for editing the last five chapters. Why I can’t make myself go ahead and finish and try submitting it, I don’t know. Sigh…
And then there’s the partial one waiting in the corner, mocking me…
I have the utmost confidence in you, Elizabeth, and I’m cheering you on — I’m ready for more Myrtle Clover and I’m looking forward to the Memphis Barbecue series as well.
Do I have manuscripts on the back burner? Yes, I sure do. Three of them, as a matter of fact, each a different genre. But I keep starting new projects instead of going back to revise, polish, and submit those “resting” drafts, so I don’t know if I’ll ever finish them.
Oh God, you do ask the tough questions, don’t you? You, I know, will pick that dusty thing off and get right to it. I, on the other hand, am paralyzed around new projects at the moment. Don’t know why. Just am. Maybe today…
Karen
You can do it. No wiggin’ out, either!
L. Diane Wolfe “Spunk On A Stick”
http://www.circleoffriendsbooks.blogspot.com
I had a trunk-ish novel that I liked. Good story, good characters, good moral dilemma. However, when I revisited it, the prose was horrible (actually made me a little queasy). So I opened up two windows on my compter, side-by-side, and I rewrote the entire ms, word-by-word.
Worked out pretty well, I think. Improved my typing, too.
Going back to old manuscripts lets you examine them with a more dispassionate eye. When I’ve picked them up again I have always re-written massive sections as certain plots seem to contrived or repetitive.
Enjoy going back. Read with relish. Then change what needs to be changed while the new ideas are fresh. If everything changes you’ve got the time to do it. If only little things change then time to sit back! As one who has been there many times I assure you “All will be well!”
Elspeth
I think this is a brilliant idea. By the time you pick this up, it will feel totally new, parts of it as if someone else wrote it. I truly believe you will be able to read it not as the author but as a reader or editor. I can’t wait to hear your response once you do set to work on it!
Helen
Straight From Hel
I think this is actually the best way to write a really great book–write it when you are emotionally invested, then come back when you’ve meandered through some other fields and aren’t quite so married to the events… the fresh eye makes for great stuff! (have fun with it!)
I have three WIPs at the moment… two ‘inspired’ and one I’ve been plodding through… the first one I started I am just getting back to after 6 months of simmering (CONFLUENCE simmered that long, too)–I think that step away after starting (outline, write 3 or 4 scenes) really helps–at least to my scattered processing…
Hart
….Confessions of a Watery Tart
I have to catch myself when I micro-revise the initial draft when i should be laying out the outline and simply filling out the rough draft. I want to be able to captue the rough draft before I lose major ideas first and foremost.
Stephen Tremp
http://www.stephentremp.blogspot.com/
I think the longer a manuscript “rests” the better. Rereading after an extended period of time makes it easier for me to see the problems and to come up with new ideas.
Sharon–It’s scary, but you should pick it up again. And you’ll be like me…reading it for the first time in ages. You’ll probably get some wonderful ideas.
Diane–I bet I’ll be wiggin’. :)
Helen–That’s exactly what it feels like. I feel like I’m just reading someone else’s book!
Patricia–Three different genres!? I’ve got to hand it to you. I can’t see myself writing a different genre right now.
Karen–Paralysis is natural, I think. I’d be the same way if the deadlines weren’t kicking me in the rear end.
Hart–You’ve described the benefits very elegantly–that’s exactly why I think this might work well. I wrote it when I was excited and now I’ve written a completely different book in the meantime. I’m going back with fresh perspective.
Alan–Oh my word. THAT is a major undertaking! I’m not sure if I could do that. I think I’d have to read the whole draft a few times through, then rewrite from scratch. Although…well, my idea doesn’t sound fun, either!
Elspeth–Thanks, Elspeth! You’re right…I’ve got plenty of time to make my changes.
Stephen–Very true. I try not to edit as I write a first draft.
Jane–I think the problems jump off the page faster this way, but I am getting some great ideas.
Good checklist! I do put projects on the back burner if I feel I’m stagnating and the writing is just not flowing well. That’s why I keep 2-3 WIP’s going at once. If one is falling flat, I’ll shelf it for a while and write in another one where the inspirations are coming with some force.
Marvin D Wilson
Thanks, Marvin! I’m wondering how long you shelve your projects when you’re working on another one…
Great post. Good luck with your plan. I don’t have any back-up projects at the moments–just ideas waiting to be written.
Sometimes putting a writing project away is like getting an incomplete in a class – it just never does get done! Kind of like your “mss graveyard.” Good luck reviving it, I’m sure you’ll do great with it.
Couple thoughts: Great checklist…but really ambitious. Time will be stalking you. Let us know if you get all the way through each tasking, or, drop or truncate some. As to coming back to a MS, oh, yeah, that’s what I just did/am doing. It was interesting. Some of it looked very familiar, some I’d forgotten about, but was pleased with. Other parts, I chunked as unneeded or extra baggage. Not bad, necessarily, just unneeded. I did do major rewrites of the first chapter, because, well, that *was* needed. Now, I gotta figure a way to sneak the revised draft to my publisher…who is considering it, but, not yet read it…I hope.
Best Regards, Galen
Imagineering Fiction Blog
Galen—You’re right. It’s going sooooo slooowwwww. I keep making corrections as if I were doing a normal revision on a project I’d been working regularly on for the past few months.
I’m going to have to think about this some more.
It scares me to come back to a project after I’ve let it sit. I’m always worried it’s going to be horrible. Usually, it’s not as bad as I imagine (although a time or two it’s been worse).
You’ve set an ambitious goal, but I know you and Guinness are up to the task. As others have said, keep us updated on your progress.
For me, the back burner can work if the project is already quite well advanced and I’ve hit a snag with it. Returning after a break sometimes helps to resolve the snag.
A few times I’ve put a project on the back burner, but only once have I gone back–and that’s to a project that was pretty much finished.
Once I’ve set aside a project, that’s usually curtains for it. There’s always a new project that catches my fancy.
Bob Sanchez
http://bobsanchez1.blogspot.com
A cool off period before revision is essential. My work process this year has been: wrote suspense novel; cooled off for a few weeks while reading and brainstorming for current WIP; revised suspense novel and wrote synopses for the next two books in that trilogy; outlined and started current WIP; brainstormed for next novel (a duology, if that’s a word) and read while working on current WIP; now I will finish the first draft of my current WIP then do a final polish of the suspense novel and send it out before I come back to revise my current WIP. Whew! I hope it works–my only real trouble so far has been switching between first person and third person for the different manuscripts, takes a while for my brain to stop hurting. Of course, I’m still unpublished and writing on spec, so I don’t have deadlines, but I try to keep working on something constantly so I’m not tempted to tune out in front of the TV and relax when I get home from my day job. I’m trying for my first child, so maybe that is a deadline: I see your hectic schedule and think I won’t manage to get anything done after that!
Martin–I’m hoping this break will end up making this manuscript stronger. I’m just worried the learning curve after picking it back up again is going to be formidable.
Tara–Thanks Tara. Good luck committing your ideas to paper/Word.
Warren–You wouldn’t believe what’s rotting in my graveyard! Most of the projects in the cemetery get tossed…this one is for keeps, so we’ll see.
Jack–It definitely is a scary thing. You almost don’t know what you’re walking into. The nice part is the fresh perspective.
Bob–That’s exactly the way that mine have been. This is the first one I put aside and came back to. But time constraints were the reason I put it aside, not content, and so I’m viewing it differently than the “problem kid” manuscripts I’ve stuck in a closet in the past.
Lorel–I think your schedule you set for yourself makes sense. The way you constructed it shouldn’t burn you out (you’re doing the same kind of thing I am…revising one while working on another.)
After kids, you just have to adjust the schedule, but it’s totally doable. I wrote my first book when I had a baby in the house. There’s always nap time, etc.! I think as long as we consciously THINK of a way to deal with time issues, instead of going with the flow (as I’ve done before, with awful results), then we can find a way around problems.
This sounds like a brilliant way to keep moving forward and keeping it all fresh. Wish I could do that with my WIPs. I have a mystery that still needs research (and a chunk I already know is going to need major revision), my Destineers project and I have been fortunate to have had some freelance work come my way…naturally that is what has been on the front burner. Hoping desperately to get back to the Destineers this weekend. I’m jealous of your organizational skills – I can get organized in all other areas…but the writing…sigh.
Nancy, from Realms of Thought…