I'll be over there, talking to myself...

They used to say that talking to yourself was a sign of madness. Lately the perception has been swinging the other way, with studies (don't go read that unless you're REALLY interested) saying that it's actually a great way to increase cognitive processes and intelligence.

Well, I don't know how normal it is, but as a writer I do it a lot, when I say a lot, I mean A LOT. I narrate a good deal of my own life and always have. It's gotten me plenty of strange looks over the years, but I've never quite understood the problem.

Lately, that habit has been paying dividends!  I'm doing my latest revision out loud. To break that down for you, I'm locking myself in a room and reading my last revision and fixing/trimming things as I go. It's been working fantastically so far, but I find I'm having discussions with myself, out loud, about how to fix certain paragraphs. No, I don't mean I'm simply saying the alternative sentences out loud (though I am doing that), I'm discussing the merits of certain word choices and sentence orders.

I only worry when I give myself completely awesome and unexpected answers.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

I've been reaching out and finding Critique Partners beyond my Alpha Readers (who are great), and sending them some sample chapters. Some of the folks I reached out to are busy and I want them to know I'm completely cool with that. You need to take the opportunities you get and run with them, I'm rooting for all of you.

I have had some luck finding people to look at my work and not cringe in disgust, so that's good. I won't shout out to them here until I know they're cool with it and whether or not we'll continue beyond some sample chapters. But I love what I'm getting from them so far.

This is an exciting and terrifying time for me, but I'm having a blast.

Revision 2 complete!

This is my first attempt at a novel length work. I've been reasonably good with writing short fiction and stage plays in the past. I'm learning just how different this process can be, especially when it comes to revisions.

The first revision resulted in an entire rewrite of nearly 2/3 of the book. This pass I've just completed probably rewrote another 30%. Entire chapters were scrapped, rebuilt from the ground up, and in some cases moved.

I hope I've cleaned up all the plot holes and character inconsistencies at this point.

The next pass will be targeting passive voice, word choice, and grammar. It should be considerably faster as I've been doing some of that on this pass I've just finished. Still, I'm putting it out there for Critique Partners (my post on CPSeek.com is getting no love so far) to have a go at it with the intent to get fresh writerly eyes on Plot and Character (please! please! please don't look at grammar just yet!).

The novel isn't the only thing that's getting revised either. Thanks to some help from Lauren Spieller and this epic post on her blog, my Query has been getting some love too. Distilling 100,000 words to a single page query has been frightening. I can only hope I've done a better job on the story itself.

Even if this novel never sees the light of day I'm better for it. I've had a lot of fun and learned a great deal along the way that will help with the next one.

The Power of Description

I've been struggling with this very concept from the start. Description is NOT my strong suit when it comes to writing. I think I do plot, character, and action reasonably well, what I tend to skim over is description of setting.

I'm conflicted on how much effort I should put into improving it, and I think I'll have a better idea once Crow's Blood (BookB) has been in the hands of a few CPs and my Alpha Readers have had a chance to go through it start to finish.

I've been trying to come up with a way to get my point across. I've been handed the perfect tool. I want you to go watch something, something that may well blow your mind. Alan Rickman making tea...

Go ahead. I'll wait.

Back? Good. Hopefully you watched the whole thing, it gets real right around 4 minutes in. Back again? Fantastic!

Now you've just watched 7 minutes of Alan Rickman making tea in slow motion. Tell me, without going back to look at it, what did the room look like? How about the wall behind him? The desk? I don't know, maybe it's just me, but I could tell you more about the look on his face, or the tea-bag, or the lemon than anything else in that video.

That's my point, and I want you to argue with me about it. If the action and the characters are compelling enough, do I need to do more than give the absolute basic framework of the surroundings? Crow's blood weighs in at ~100,000 words/~430 Manuscript pages (unedited), and it's reasonably fast paced.

I try to provide what description is necessary, while avoiding great gobs of exposition that will mess with the pacing and ultimately be forgotten. I'm sure I'll have more to discuss on this after I get finished with this revision (7 chapters to go) and work through my first round with some Critique Partners, but I want to know in the comments (if possible) if anyone else feels the same, or if I'm crossing some line in the sand of fiction?

Oh and I really just wanted everyone to watch  7 minutes of Alan Rickman making tea, because it's AWESOME!

- Alex

Avoidance Techniques

So here's a quick update. Just so you can't say I didn't give you one!

I've noticed I'm stalling. I've caught myself avoiding getting into revision right away (before tonight, I hopped right in tonight), and I know why. Fear, Insecurity, and Doubt. Yes, I know that capitalizing them like that is against the rules. Sue me. They deserve it.

I'm now 5 days past when I wanted to have this revision done so I could start the whole "send this puppy out to critique partners so they can rip me a new one" phase. Basically, the part of the process where I find out on some level just how bad it is and how much more work there is to do on it. The thought of that terrifies me. What if it's crap. What if they laugh at me?

Well, I've decided two things.

1. I'm not going to rush it, I'll finish the revision when I finish it.
2. I'm not going to drag my feet any more on it.

So, that's all for this little update. Back at it!