#57: Taking a step back

Today, I want to talk about editing. I was working on two chapters, and I couldn’t make them work no matter what I did. After compiling several lists, re-outlining, mind mapping, re-outlining again and banging my head against the wall for a bit, I decided to start over.

First, I looked at the story at the beginning of the first chapter and wrote down exactly what each party knew and was expecting. Then I skipped to the end of the second chapter and did the same. I had two checkpoints, and the task became to find a path between them. I completely forgot about the words that I’d already written. That was when everything came together.

The solution involved breaking up the chapters into three. I added two short scenes from a different POV, then moved other scenes around and cut a large part of the ending. These structural changes made a massive difference, and I could’ve never done them by just refining the draft I already had.

I’d spent many hours trying to untangle a plot hole in my story over the last couple of weeks (you might have read that in last week’s update). I kept coming back to the same structure and inevitably the same problems. There’s something about the first draft and all the words it took to write it that makes me reluctant to do significant changes. Maybe I can tweak something here and there, and it will come together?

Sometimes, though, what you need is to take a step back and start over. Gutting the story in the middle can be terrifying. You worked your face off on the first draft. It feels like you’re never going to be able to put the pieces back together.

Alas, mistakes happen at all stages of the process and the earlier you’re able to weed those out, the better. Interestingly, I was able to adapt most of the old chapters to the new structure and only had to rewrite maybe 20% of the words. Even sweeping changes don’t need to be catastrophic.

What I am reading

Finished Snow Crash this week. What a book! I had a lot of fun reading it with at least two separate instances of bursting out laughing uncontrollably on the tube. People probably thought I was weird, but who cares? Neal Stephenson nailed the situational humour in this one. Here’s the opening of chapter 36:

“Until a man is twenty-five, he still thinks, every so often, that under the right circumstances he could be the baddest motherfucker in the world…”
—Neal Stephenson

Interesting fact: Google Earth was modelled after an idea from Snow Crash.

Now I’m reading Capture or Kill by Tom Marcus, which is a whole different sort of book about spies. So far, it’s pretty good. I really enjoy the author’s immediate style. The contents seem very heavily inspired by his earlier memoir about his career at MI5. That’s fine if you haven’t read it. I have, so I’m hoping things will pick up later on.

Capture or Kill by Tom Marcus

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