Thoughts on revision, and history, and life

I happen to be  at a low point right now.  Probably lower than I was this time last year, when the pandemic grew stronger almost every day with no apparent end in sight. On the plus side, I have almost no appetite. That is a really big plus. I have managed to lose ten pounds without even trying. (Just imagine what I could lose if I did try.)

 
Maybe it’s because of all the revisions I have had to work on over the last few weeks. Revision is a different animal from editing. (I did a post on the differences a little while ago.) Editing is tedious, but I can do it easily. Revision simply sucks.

 
I sent my editor at Scholastic a draft of my Non-Fiction manuscript, Unlawful Orders earlier in 2021. I say draft, even though, for some foolish reason, I considered my words nearly perfect. Seriously,  I have been writing novels - and having to revise them - for over a decade, but somehow I still foolishly believed I had crafted a revision proof draft. 

Then I received the editorial  letter.

 
The editor assured me she loved the story. Absolutely, it was awesome! There were just had one or two tiny areas she suggested I rethink. Yes, the dreaded revision letter I received for Unlawful Orders read a lot like that. I hate tiny areas. Like, even though the main character is a doctor, she thought there was too much about medicine on the pages. Oh, and there were minor characters she wanted me to make more prominent. Most of these were people who literally entered and then quickly exited the life of my protagonist. She wanted more aout World War II as well. My character lived to be in his nineties and only four years were spent in the army. Still, I needed more about the war. 

No wonder I have no appetite these days.

 
Every change to the manuscript is taking me longer than I estimated. Except deleting an entire chapter she found unnesessary. That was painful, but at least it was quick, surgical. On the positive side, my story is a historical, tracing Chicago surgeon Dr. James Williams and his family though the twentieth century. I'm back to doing research to give her the additions she wants. Sometimes going through the past is as difficult as worldbuilding a story set in some far distant planet. It also makes me think. At least the story is non-fiction. That means I know how things end.

At the same time as I hear news that San Francisco is considered a national model in Covid vaccinations, my research tells me it was a major mask denier during the Spanish Flu, making it one of America's hardest hit big cities.  The long, unending list of anti-Black riots that hit America in the twentieth century helps me understand the main chracter's father. He literally suffered a stroke when his sons were drafted in World War II and sent to Europe to fight, and possibly die, for a country that had never even passed a federal anti-lynching law. (PS, to this day, the US still has not passed one.) The more things change, the more they really do stay the same.

 
But my return to research for the revision effort did hand me one diamond. A poem called Outwitted by Dr. Roman Edwin Markham.

He drew a circle that shut me out 

Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout. 

But love and I had the wit to win 

We drew a circle that took him in.

I will keep that idea in my life (and in my story). I shall draw a bigger circle to become more accepting to the world.

Preserving your Voice

Hi everyone! I am YA author B A Binns , writer of contemporary and realistic fiction for teens. My tagline tells you what I am about - Stories of Real Boys Growing Into Real Men - and the people who love them. 

This is my second post on that super-elusive quality called Voice. The first post (which you can find at VOICE: It's All About You) came back in March, fittingly occurring as I was beginning the first of what ended up being three different rounds of revisions for my debut middle grade novel, Courage. I craft stories for kids. I am not one of those prolific writers who can curn out multiple books every year.  My first YA novel was published by Westside Books in 2010. Courage, which will be released in 2018 from Harper Collins, is only my fourth published novel. In between I have written several short stories and have two stories in progress.  Like a chisel wielding stone artisan, I work slowly, clawing out a finished product one chip at a time. At least my chosen media is slightly more forgiving than rock. When I mess up, I get to delete and rewrite with a keyboard.

For me, crafting a novel means doing that over and over again. The roughest part for me is figuring out how to perform major revisions without loosing my initial vision, my Voice.

Voice is hard to describe, but it’s something you just know when you hear it. Think of music. Christmas approaches (I know, I can barely believe how much of this year has gone myself).  Various artists will be releasing their versions of the old standards. Same old words, same old story, but different people find different artists compelling, singing standards that stand out because of the arrangement; the Voice.

I ponder this because I came face to face with the issue over the last few months while doing final revisions for Courage. As I said in another prior post, Revision and Editing are not the same things. Revision can involve making major changes to improve the story and reading experience. Those changes can encompass everything. Everything except dismantling the novel's basic core and theme. That has to remain to keep the voice intact.

At its core, Courage is about brotherly love and is a retelling of the Prodigal Son parable told from the point of view of the good brother who now fears the older brother he once loved and revered. I typed The End on this story in 2015. It was acquired by Harper Collins in 2016. Revisions began earlier this year for the 2018 release. Let me say that my editor is a wonderful woman. She’s interesting, loves books, and has near infinite patience. She also saw parts of the story she really wanted changed. I had to both listen to her, and remain true to the theme that moved me.

However, over the years, my own voice had changed. The 2016 elections played a large part in that, along with many of the issues plaguing people of color in America, including children of color. As I did the revisions, I realized there was no way that could not leech into my story. I was amazed to find how the personalities of several characters changed as I plowed through the revisions. But the innermost story of redemption remained strong.

As I said in my prior post on Voice, an author’s voice is the sum of their life experiences. That is the thing editors and agents prize more than they do the author’s plot. Lots has happened to me, my life and my world in the last two years. When called on by my editor to rework the ending, my updated Voice licked it’s lips and took control.

Our writer’s voice constantly evolves. That sometimes has us looking back on our body of work done years earlier and being astounded. We evolve, change, come up with things that are different because we ourselves evolve. Remember that when dealing with critique partners, beta readers, and editors. I’ve heard of writers revising to please them until their once vibrant and lively story turns voiceless. No editor or agent I know is interested in a story without a compelling, leap off the page and suck readers in, Voice.  It is Voice that makes writers. As someone said, there are only so many plots in the world. What makes a story original, what makes it yours instead of someone else’s, is how Your Voice tells Your Story.

On a related note: a number of editors, agents and award-winning authors are giving away critiques as a way to help the new a new organization, KIDLITNATION.com. Kidlitnation will use the funds to help #ownvoices. be heard. Today, August 9, is the final day of the raffle, if you are interested, take a look at the array of talent you can bid on at http://kidlitnation.com/home/own-your-voice/fundraising/. This is a chance to get feedback from industry experts on your Voice and your manuscript.

Revision and Editing

Hi everyone! I am YA author B A Binns , writer of contemporary and realistic fiction for teens. My tagline tells you what I am about - Stories of Real Boys Growing Into Real Men - and the people who love them. 


For this post, you're getting the infamous piece of free advice (you know, the stuff that's worth what you pay for it according to the old axiom). I hope you will find this useful even though it costs nothing, especially if you are a beginning writer.

To me, there's nothing like opening up a book and finding an error on the first page I look at. And then finding more on the second and third and every succeeding page. Nothing that kills my pleasure in reading faster, especially if the book was written by a  friend and I really, really wanted to like it. I would have loved it, if only the author had done a better job of editing.

I take that back, there is something that kills the pleasure just as fast, and that is the book that bores me more with each page and serves as a cure for insomnia. The story idea was great, that's why I picked it up, but the author never put in the revision effort necessary to make the story live up to it's promise. I'm not talking about the occasional misplaced comma or spelling error or even the character who turns from a blond to a brunette halfway through the story sans benefit of a trip to the beauty shop for a dye job. Either of these can ruin a story, but lack of continuity and missing character motivations are the worst.

Revision and editing are two separate processes. They occur at different points in the lifecycle of a manuscript and produce two different results.  Both are needed to transform your initial draft into something readers will enjoy and recommend to their friends. It's important for author to  understand what both processes provide to strengthen and improve a manuscript.

Revision

You know what you want to say. In many cases you can see the story laid out in your head on an internal storyboard. Then you go to write that draft and what seems so clear in your mind's eye makes little sense on the page. Worst of all, you discover that scene A really cannot happen before scene C, or even before scene J.

Revision deals with your story as a whole unit and makes sure you say what you meant for readers to get. During the revision effort you go through the whole manuscript to seek out and eliminate problems like plot holes and wimpy characters. During revision you may expand upon ideas that are not as clear on the page as they were in your head.  Attention to the story as a whole makes your writing flow and sparkle.


Look at things like:

• Scene order: Check to see if the all scenes have an emotional impact. Look for continuity errors. See if you need to move or remove entire paragraphs, scenes, or chapters. Or add new content.
• The way the character's inner journey's progress in relation to the plot and each other. 
• Word choice - (do characters speak softly or do they murmur)
• Sentence fluency: Are your sentences varied yet easily readable and organized? Do you start too many the same way?
• Ask yourself overall questions about your story and writing voice. For example: Do I really need all of these characters or can some roles be collapsed into one individual? Or: Is the motivation for my character's action clear to a reader?

Whether your theme is Love Conquers All, or Might Makes Right, revision helps ensure that message shines from your pages. Revision is often a continual process of writing and re-writing.

Word of caution - Revision means change and not all change is for the better. You may decide that what you wrote was better the first time, or you could decide that you really need a different change. Revision can be a very messy process. This is one situation when talking to yourself is valuable. Articulate WHY you need to make a change, why you think your story is not working the way it is and what you're trying to achieve before you make the change to reduce the possibility you will need to change yet again.

Editing

While revision is done by looking at the overall story, editing happens at the sentence level. Editing is the step that makes your story look better and improves the correctness of your message. Editing is for sentence-level details and changes. Do this after you have an acceptable draft - there is no point in editing a chapter and then discovering you need to change the entire chapter and/or  deleting it. Editing primarily involves checking for flaws in general grammar and writing conventions.

First of all, do not, not, NOT rely on spell check. (You might be surprised how many people take spell check as the ultimate authority and never question it's suggestions or changes.) A word can be spelled correctly and still be the wrong word for particular sentence. And, as one person who ended up typing U. S. Pubic Health Service can attest, autocorrect can be your worst enemy.


I always revise anything larger than a paragraph on a hard copy, on the screen I have difficulty seeing the big picture of a full scene or chapter.



No matter how painful it is, (and I admit to hating the editing process, especially around the subject of commas) this step can't be skipped. I find that reading the story out loud helps because my ear finds things like clumsy rhythms, repeated text or words, awkward and complex sentences, missing words, and similar problems that my eyes miss because they KNOW what I meant to say.

My Own Process

Someone once asked me how many times I edited my work. I realized she meant editing and revision, but I really couldn't tell her. I don't count. If I did, the number would be so high even I would become depressed. I revise,  edit, and revise again, rinse and repeat, time after time. I go through cycles when I absolutely hate my own words,  others when, in the words of the A-team's leader - "I love it when a plan comes together." I don't stop until the message is clear to beta readers. Because no matter how beautiful you think your babies are, you can't let them out in the world on their own until they are ready.

I usually revise and then edit, and then revise and edit again. And then I get someone else to look at my work, because I can't see all of Junior's flaws. A developmental editor can help during the revision stage. A line or copy editor functions during the editing phase. Really consider making use of these kinds of professionals, especially if you intend self-publishing.  To paraphrase an old commercial: Quality should go in before you attach your name.

Right now I am coming to the end of the cycle with my first MG novel. Literally, the last round of edits are almost over, there is one major scene that needs a revision/rewrite and then final edit, and then it's off to my agent (after almost a year of writing, revision and editing). To me the time and effort was worth it. I hope readers will say the same thing. As for you guys, please forgive any errors you find in this post. I know there must be something wrong, there usually is.

Now, consider sharing your thoughts and/or process with others. I'd love to hear from you about your editing and revision efforts.