De-familiarizing your work: Falling in love all over again

Today, Candy Gourlay (see her site here & buy her great book here!) asked me an excellent question concerning editor Cheryl Klein's list that I wrote about on my last blog post: here

"So which one would you recommend to a writer who's a total newbie, and which one to a writer with one book under her belt?"

This was my response, which I'm posting because it REALLY helped me through revisions last month.

De-familiarizing your work is some of the best advise on the list. Whether you are just starting out, or have been writing for a while, stepping away from the familiarity of your book always helps you see things that you didn't before.

When I was working on revisions for The Life and Times of Cara Grimes, there were parts I had memorized. I didn't know it at the time, but when I read the final version of chapters one and two out loud at critique group, I actually started to read the old parts that were in my head, even though I had the corrected page right in front of me.

No wonder I had such a hard time seeing what needed work. I think sometimes we become old friends with our book and don't want to confront them about our problems. I mean, we're getting on fine, why go and upset things? After all, trying to fix it will cause me a lot more work and I'm almost finished. Believe me, this is crazy talk! We should never think of our work as 'good enough'. In today's market we just can't afford to!

So, I have said all that to say this. Fall in love with your work all over again, by going back out on a first date. Remember the good impressions we wanted to make. Remember how excited we were. Remember how it felt to fall in love only this time do it from a fresh new angle ;)Spice up the relationship. You will not only love your book more in the end, but (and maybe more importantly to some) an agent or editor just might fall in love with that book along with you!

Editor Crush: Cheryl Klein

As some of you may know, I recently attended the SCBWI Inernational Winter Conference 2012 in New York. While there, I attended several workshops and lectures. Although I learned a lot at every one of them, I must say that the one at the very top of my list was run by the Executive Editor at Arthur A Levine Books (scholastic), Cheryl Klein. She said revision was really re-visioning your novel, which really struck me. I took notes and would like to share some of them with you today, as I think everyone could benefit from her wisdom.
www.cherylklein.com
http://www.arthuralevinebooks.com/

http://cherylklein.com/buying-second-sight/

 
She started with this:
Revision = (Re)Visioning
Three main goals of revision are to create more:
REALITY - creating a world with real humans:be honest, what emotional effect are
you going for
CLARITY - of language and theme
TRANSPARENCY - prose is like a window and our final step is to polish that window

To revise well you need:
Courage, love, hard work, chocolate, and alcohol

Cheryl's 21 revision techniques (mostly in her words, but not verbatim):
VISION
1) Know how you work best - you do not have to and probably shouldn't do all of these things
2) Take time off from the project and work on something else at that time
3) Before you look at the manuscript again, write a letter to a sympathetic friend describing:
a. The books core, why you wrote it, what drove you, what scared you
b. What you wanted to do with the book, or wanted the book to do
c. Briefly what the story is
d. What the book is about in a larger sense
e. All the things you love about it
f. What you suspect needs work
4) Compressing #3c, write the story in one sentence
5) Expanding #3c, write a flap copy (blurb)
6) Create stuff:
a. Look at your word frequency
using Wordle
or http://www.writewords.org.uk/word_count.asp
b. Make a collage or playlist about your novel (to keep you focused while you work on it)
c. Use touchstones (words, pictures, or mascots) for your desk/wall that represent and remind you of a main character, feeling, or idea of you novel
d. Make a 'pinterest' here board for your book (or make things on a cork board that help you envision your book's ideas in a tangible way)
EXAMINATION: DE-FAMILIARIZE YOUR WORK
7) Change the font, print it out, and read the entire manuscript on the page before making any revisions (but take notes as you go)
8) List the ffirst 10 things each significant character says or does (include internal narration for POV characters)
9) Run the plot check list: HERE
a. Is your inciting incident actual action? How close can you get this to the first page?
b. Where are the turning points in the story?
c. Work backwards from the climax: do at least 3 plot developments support it?
10) Picture book writers: make a dummy book HERE
11)Chart Plotting (for tracking info in a manuscript)
a. Character-Oriented: Make a spreadsheet of significant characters down the side, then make
along the top, his desires conscious or unconscious, strengths, obsticals to the desire, 3 actions is achieving desire, overall contribution to the Plot/Protaganist
b. Story-Oriented: Plot and subplot across the top and chapters down the side, write developments in each plot in every chapter, At the bottom- justify each plot's existance in relation to the other plots and themes
have a look at this:
http://stuffyoushouldread.posterous.com/j-k-rowlings-plot-chart-for-her-harry-potter
12) Novelists: bookmap/outline the action of the book scene by scene
a. What do the characters want in this scene?
b. What is the conflict of this scene?
c. Where is the climax of this scene? Emotionally how does the scene build that climax?
d. What change takes place in this scene and how does it deepen/advance the plot/characters
13) Mini-map: for each scene provide a 1 or 2 sentence summary for the action as a quick reference
14) Compare the vision that you articulated in #3-5 with the results in 7-12, compile a to do list of things you want to accomplish in a revision (don't be afraid to think big)
 ACTION
15) Have a deadline for completing each stage of revision, and a reward for yourself for each one
16) Work large to small (fix the major areas first then go back and fix the niggley bits)
17) Once you have the big stuff where it needs to be:
a. Highlight: action, internal monolog, dialog-  check for consistancy (only for a few scenes)
b. Highlight: each character's dialogue each in a different colour, then read through each colour to check for consistency in voice, check one is not overwhelming the others
c. Cut adverbs, telling (instead of showing) uses of the words 'feel', 'felt', dialog tags other than 'said' should be removed or used very minimally, passive voice should be cut, and cut out/kill unhelpful babies
18) Check the first line of your book for the hook, and every last line of each scene/chapter for emotional resonance
19) Read the book aloud (into a recorder) or have it read to you
20) Copy everything
21) Don't let perfect be the enemy of good
 And my scribbled notes at the bottom were:
What are the things that make your character go in a diff direction and how does that impact
Write a synop from the enemies point of view? Balances out and makes characters equally round
moderation- nothing is 100% wrong (take chances and see how they work out)
* sometimes things can be used, but not redundantly (like all caps, then saying 'he yelled')

Last lines
* you want it to hold a specific tone at the end of the chapter to allow it to resonate to the next chapter
o Figuring out what it is, what you want it to be, and what it should be
o Requires loving the characters, the audience, and yourself, and a lot of effort and hard work
o The truth you know is the one that will get you published
o Though, it is a money making business
o If you can do both skilfully you are there
- Reality
Tell the truth to yourself
Don’t be afraid to go there
* Clarity
o Purpose story line
Transparency
o transparent prose