So I'm in the midst of a million revisions and I'm starting to get just the teensiest bit fed up. Let me tell you about the revisions so you can feel my pain. Revision #1: The original: Heroine has amnesia, hero is helping her solve a mystery but doesn't reveal his true identity (he's her ex-fiance).
The editor's request: take out the amnesia LOL!
*Note: the entire plot pretty much focuses on the amnesia aspect, so by removing it, I'm left with...um, nothing?
Revision #2: The original: Hero is on a stakeout, hoping the perp will show up at the heroine's house (heroine is perp's ex). Hero is serious about his job, emotionally unavailable, and doesn't think the heroine was involved with her ex's crimes.
The editor's request: Hero does think the heroine is involved, and uses seduction to get close to her.
*Note: this one isn't hard to do, but it will require rewriting the hero's entire character and personality.
So basically, I'm sitting here looking at the originals and wondering if there's anything salvagable in them. In the second story, I could keep a lot of the plot. In the first, it's pretty much a rewrite. I mean, how do I write an amnesia story without the amnesia?
My biggest problem is, it's so hard for me to let go of what I've already written. I'm reading over the original chapters and going, man, that's good. I love that line. That description is awesome. Hey, what a great bit of dialogue! So I've just started cutting and pasting, keeping lines I like, sucking it up and deleting others.
I hate revisions. I hate letting go of the ideas that excited me in the first place, even if the new ideas are better. Which is usually the case. But it's just difficult, that first step, when you have to erase what you wrote and say, start over!
It's funny, because as a reader, I don't think about the possibility that the book I'm reading might have been rewritten several times, that the plot and characters might have been completely different. And it made me curious about some of my favourite books, whether or not they were totally different before, and whether I would have liked the original better.
I don't really have any questions for you guys, except maybe for the writers--how do you deal with revisions? And for the readers, have you ever wished a story was written differently, or wondered what the original was like?
Elle
9 comments:
OMG, do I feel your pain, Elle. I just finished the revisions from hell for my third Superromance. And, like you, I grow attached to my prose. I like it and don't want to lose it. More, I'm lazy as hell and don't want to rewrite what I've already done. Unfortunately, I ended up rewriting 3/4 of my Super in about 4 days. So not fun.
Good luck with the revisions.
Tracy :)
I have a hard time letting go of phrases or scenes that I thought were really awesome. But the more I write, the more I find that most of the time, trying to hold onto it creates more problems than it's worth. I don't know how many times I've tried to twist an entire scene just so I can use one funny little thing I came up with, then only after much head-banging do I accept the fact that what's not working about the scene IS that funny little thing.
It sucks having to let things go. I think it was Stephen King in his book On Writing who said you have to be able to kill your children, or something along those lines. What helps is when I remind myself that if I wrote something really awesome once, the replacement stuff can be just as awesome too.
As a reader only, I can really only think of one book that I HATED the ending so much I threw the book across the room when I finished reading it. This from the person who only lets a few people even borrow my books for fear they will come back messed up. Luckily, when the book was made into a movie they changed the ending to something that I felt was more true to the characters.
Great question, Elle. I basically rewrote LIBERATING LACEY from scratch. I kept 5K or so of the initially accepted ms and wrote 75K of new stuff. I found when I tried to keep what I'd written before I ended up bollocksing up (new word, LOL) the characters so badly it wasn't worth it. Sounds like you've got some BIG rewrites ahead of you! Good luck!
First let me offer you my sympathies. Revisions are no fun. The amnesia one sounds daunting, I'm not gonna lie. But I'm sure you'll do a fabulous job. I have faith.
I am waiting to hear back on some revisions. I received suggestions from an editor, revised just the first three chapters and sent them back to her since she said she wanted to make sure I was on the right track before I rewrite the entire book. Because that's what I'm going to have to do - rewrite the entire book if she likes what I changed. Eeek...
Regarding cutting, etc. I keep a file for those deleted passages if they're ones I really like. That way I don't feel so bad when I hit delete, delete, delete...
Tracy, I don't know how you practically rewrote a book in 4 days--you're a machine!!
And Lori, I remember that Stephen King quote, about killing your children. It's so true. I guess it takes practice to be a baby killer LOL!
Thanks for the luck, Anne. I totally need it. I'm finding what you and Lori to be true, that when I try desperately to hang on to one detail, it ends up messing everything else up. I definitely need to learn to let go...
Personally the amnesia angle works for me because I figure they fell in love twice - it was meant to be.
In general do themes go in cycles?
e.g. The nanny, the boss, the amnesiac ex. Do editors think that a theme is being overdone & want to get away from it even when its a proven winner? It's scary to think that an editor not the author has control over what I'll be reading. Its one thing to make edits & tweak a story. It's a whole other thing when they change the whole premise.
OMG, Elle, I've so been there. LIke Lori, I've tried to hang on the dialogue or an angle for a scene I loved. I made my life hell trying to use it in the new revisions and finally had to let things go. And like Tracy, I've revised the last 2/3 of a book like delete all and start over) and did it in about 7 days (non-stop writing from 12 PM -- 6 AM from Wednesday - Monday. I actually loved being able to have the excuse of a deadline to be able to do NOTHING but concentrate on writing. I got into a "zone" and wrote SO EASILY, it was wonderful.
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