Edits and Revisions

Now that I've finally gotten the initial draft done, though it did take me 5 attempts to get everything right so I could continue, I can finally get started on the next phase of writing. The revisions and the edits.

This can actually be a pretty time consuming process for me, or it can go really quickly depending on what frame of mind I'm in and how well the story went to begin with. I don't really know how most writers do things. Probably a lot different from the way that I do things. I'm somewhat certain of that.

When I first start the writing process for a story, it goes a little something like this. The first phase is always some sort of rough outlining of a story idea. Getting down the basic framework and what I want to do with the story. This usually includes what the main plot is going to be, a basic outline of general types of scenes that have to be included to make the plot work.

There's not a lot of detail with this. It's pretty much just a skeleton. I start with the basic idea, for example Tiny vampires and ghouls attack the city, get Heaven and the people at the Armory involved, clear out the ghoul nests and take out the vampires. That's pretty much it. Just a vague idea and a skeleton. That's usually all I have to start with unless it's a story that's been on my mind for a while.

From there, and this usually takes a few days, little things and ideas get added on as things pop into my head at random times. New pack of werewolves, the introduction of the wererats, things like that. Sometimes when I'm doing something else, a conversation between two or more characters will pop into my head and I'll spend some very distracted time going through said conversation and fiddling with it until it's something that's usable. This happens quite frequently actually and a lot of these random conversations, that a lot of the time are just idle chatter so to speak, do make it into the story in one form or another.

What this leads too is usually a bunch of random scenes that I have in mind that now I can get back to the skeleton and start stapling things together to get a general idea of the direction I want the story to go into. I like to start with the prologue because I can set the theme and tone with just a short little story that for the most part the rest of the cast and crew aren't going to ever see. It's something that happens that they don't know about, but that sets the tone and direction for them.

First scene I like to put in place, and mind you this is all without details, just a bunch of thoughts at this point, is some backtracking. Nothing too in depth for the most part, but kind of a catch up to see how things are since the last story. The stories are a continuing series, so generally I like at least a little time to pass from one story to the next.

After that, I just  start making a list. Usually one to two line sentences of what I want to happen from one scene or one chapter to the next. Kind of a this, then that, then this then that sort of thing. It's all scrambled, doesn't make sense and doesn't have a lot if any detail.

And that's where I start writing from. I know who's going to be there for the most part, what's going to happen in general, at least the big beats, and how it's going to end. Very little detail, not a whole lot of planning from here on out.

Then I just start writing and letting whatever it is that's inside my head come out onto the page. I try to stick to the general outline I have, but anything other than that, it comes when and how it comes. Quite often things tend to veer off course for one reason or another and I have to stop and work out how to make it all fit. to make it all work. Kore in Cherubim for example. Her attitude is a pain in the ass to write sometimes.

She just always has to be difficult with me. I gotta get from point A to point B and Kore has a habit of stopping everything until I can figure out a way to get out what this character needs to get out, while at the same time making sure that it makes sense for the story. The stubborn willfulness of the character kind of forces the issue some times. For her to react in a plausible way that fits in with her personality, sometimes I gotta spend a few days fighting with what needs to be done, and how Kore is going to realistically react.

Trust me, the argument scene in Cherubim was a lot longer at first. Kore can be a real bitch.

And things like that happen pretty often. Not just with Kore. As a living world so to speak, other things are going to happen that don't necessarily have to do with the main plot line, people are going to react to those things and it all has to be accounted for. There's always consequences that I have to keep in mind. The stories don't take place in a vacuum, so something that happens in one, has a rippling effect for the rest of the world that I have to keep in mind.

So I sit down and write, and write, and write, and by the end, quite a few things that I initially had planned have changed. Some characters have been added, some things that I thought were going to turn out one way ended up completely different. Relationships between characters especially.  The random conversations I tend to get running through my head have a big part in this by the way.

So when all is said and done, the initial draft of the story usually has changed quite a bit from what I envisioned. And that's where all the revisions come in.

Once I get to the end of the story in the initial draft, I have a better sense than when I started about how things are going to play out. I k now the exact ending for example. And usually a big list of things that are going to have to be modified in earlier chapters to fit more with how things turned out in the later chapters.

So back I go to page one. Going line by line paragraph by paragraph with my list of notes in hand fiddling and tweaking things so that everything fits into how its all going to eventually turn out. While at the same time correcting errors and quite often reworking or rewording entire sections to make them better.

Speaking of Kore again, there are a lot of times I have to redo a lot of what involves her just because she comes across too stubborn and mouthy at times. Not that it's a bad thing, but some of it has to be toned down because I may have envisioned a level 2 and ended up writing a 10. Got to take a sharp pair of scissors to that sort of thing, because it can and often does force other characters to react differently. And if that's going to effect the main plot line, I gotta change it enough to minimize the damage so to speak.

It's a long process that can take 2-3 passes just to get it how I want it, or at least reasonably close. Don't want to over edit and continually fiddle around with things or you'll never get done.

And all that is just getting started for this latest story. I've a lot of work ahead of me still. But at least I can say, I'm kinda sort half way there maybe.