Merciless CuttingPosted by dhoffman on November 20th, 2009
This feels like one of those posts that doesn’t really need to exist. What happened, after all, anything good? Anything interesting or noteworthy?
Well, not really. I mean, sort of, but I’m not 100% exactly what it is that I’ve done here and what the implications of it may or may not be.
Listen: if this doesn’t get at least marginally interesting, I won’t post it. So, if you’re reading this then — one some level, at least — there may be something worth reading going on here.
Tonight I sat down to work on something different. Just a short story, something I’ve been kicking around a while. The issue (we never say “problem”, we say “issue”) is that I know what the story is, I just haven’t sorted out how to exactly go about it. Honestly, there’s not much story there. I’d be writing it more as an exercise than anything else and, as such, it hasn’t exactly been lighting my world on fire.
But, I figured I needed to change gears slightly. With Animals, I’ve been seriously considering junking the last two chapters (read: argh) and doing things differently. The issue (ah ha) is that I’m not SURE if this is something I want to do or not. I very much like the two chapters in question but I’m starting to feel they may not be *right* for what I need them doing.
So, yes, you’re reading that right: I love what they do and how they do it, I’m just not sure if I, um, love them enough.
If this were high school, the chapters would dump me for someone a little better organized. So it goes.
I worked on the short story, tentatively named, Leaving The Trees. I got some nice work done, a good start and all that (not like I haven’t started it before), and then I got an itch to try something new.
It’s, well, it’s something that’s been on my mind a lot lately.
“Self,” I said. “Maybe we should take a crack at Chapter One again.”
Yes, again, you’re reading that right. Second Draft. Back to the beginning. Heaven help us, worlds without end.
I’m not entirely sure what I was thinking.
But, I did it. I went back, opened a new document, copy/pasted some text so I didn’t have to redo all the formatting the way I like it, and I set to work.
I reworked two sections from the first chapter. It’s all I dare do without more of a concrete plan for where I want to go. The first section, about four hundred words, offers a nice introduction to Galen and Kara. The second section starts the ball rolling (though in a very unassuming fashion).
So, now what?
Well, I could sully forth and knock that last chapter and the epilogue out. Don’t have to be “right”, just have to exist.
Or, I could keep rolling on the Second Draft. What I’d need to be doing is chopping the first two chapters of the First Draft — together about 20,000 words — and paring that down to about 6,000 words total.
No, really.
I’ll be doing this a lot, if I’m really starting in on the Second Draft. I fully expect the 100,000 words I have right now to lose a lot of weight between now and typing THE END. The beginning of the book is where I see a lot of that cutting coming from.
Essentially, I’m tossing a bunch of stuff I was doing, back when I wasn’t sure what I was doing. Some will only be adjusted or revised (as I did tonight). Some will be discarded whole-cloth. Some will be completely new.
Most of what I’m doing is simplifying. Is it really necessary for the guy getting on Galen’s nerves at the start of Chapter One to fall down and have coffee spilled on him? Probably not. It’s satisfying as hell and — yes — does actually work as an Official, Licensed Plot Point but . . . well, it’s too clunky.
So, cutting and rewriting and cutting some more. Merciless cutting.
I will also say that Painted Ocean has been on my mind a lot lately. Sorry, did I say a lot? I meant to say A LOT.
I think I know how to start the book, which means I know how the first chapter goes. I need to talk to some folks who know about submarines and the navy before I’d go past that point, but I may have a bead on that sort of thing already.
Failing expert help, I’ll just watch Crimson Tide, The Hunt for Red October and Down Periscope a few dozen times each.
I will be ready.
That’s where I am, though. Add to that a vague sense of guilt over skipping National Novel Writing Month and I’m just happy I spent the night writing something. Writing something. That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it?