Yes, staring at walls is still writing
I jumped back into the saddle this week with my current draft. I’ve been away for about two months, letting it simmer before I entered this last leg of work. While I stayed busy in the meantime, I still felt pretty fresh jumping right it.
When I took a step away I was very vague about how long that would be. My deadline to turn the book isn’t until much later, so I had the time and breathing room to take as long as I needed. But I knew I could stay away forever, yet two months seemed to be the perfect fit. I needed a break from the book to work on a few other things. When I wrapped up that, I was ready to resume work on this book. I knew I was ready not when I got the itch to get back to work, but when I started visualizing revising scenes in the book.
I do a lot writing simply by letting my mind wander as I stare out my windows or walls. I guess it could be akin to daydreaming except a bit more focused. I imagine how a scene might unfold and it’s much like a stage play with snippets of dialogue and actions. These are alternative takes, usually very drastic takes, on how to do a scene. I like to visualize the most dramatic turn, because then I’ll know how far to take a scene. And also the more dramatic turn usually means more writing. Imagining them out first is good way for me to save time. It is a lot effort to bang out words on a keyboard, so picturing out things in my mind’s eye saves me a lot of heartbreak. Me imagining out scenes is very important right now because I have a few key tasks for this revision, with top of the list cutting 30,000, if not 40,000 words.
Yes, you read that right.
I tend to overwrite my first few drafts, because at early stage of the book’s life it’s still free flowing. I put everything I want in the book, and then take a good hard look at what parts are necessary. Through the revision I catch scenes that are redundant in tone and undercurrent the power of what I call to call “tent pole” moments. They usually aren’t bad scenes, but sometimes they run too long or even there for my own indulgences. While I don’t remove everything I do rework those scenes to make them better support everything else I’m doing with the story.
The most complicated portion of the process is cutting characters from the story. I like a nice robust supporting cast but I have a bad habit of making characters that overlap with others. It might be because I write murder mysteries but cutting characters has never been a problem for me no matter how deep in the revisions process I am in. A lot of times the excess characters can be merged with another one quite easily, because they already have similar roles in the narrative. Doing this doesn’t always help trim up the book, but it trims up some of the narrative in places, which is just as important!
News & Tidbits
I had an amazing time at this year’s Imaginairium Book Fest! It ended up being a gorgeous weekend after all the threats of rain faded away. I got to meet loads of readers, both and new and returning faces. I’ve been so busy writing these year, it’s nice to be surrounded by finished books! And I had great chats with a number of authors that were there. Time just flew past on both days and before I knew it was time to head home, to recuperate and see to charging up my social battery.
I’m offering up signed copies of the UK editions of my books (plus some swag!) in an upcoming auction with Romance for Reproductive Justice. The auction goes live on June 10th @ 9am PDT and closes June 11th @ 7pm PDT. Check it out and take part if you like.