At this late point in my revisions, the changes I'm making in my novel Cobalt Blue are small and huge.
SMALL CHANGES because:
*they're short
*they don't take long.
HUGE CHANGES because:
*the small additions, to fill in holes that my local reader/critics pointed out, are very high-impact
*I've worked on this story off and on for 18 years (while also writing three other books, etc.) and know all the off-stage history of the characters, can thus produce a highly relevant mini-scene pretty easily
*I know the story so well that I've grown more sure of each step I take, and each step is therefore stronger and clearer: BOLDER.
It's a very nice feeling, a real treat, in fact. It feels like a reward for a lot of groudwork, this rare ease.
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5 comments:
Big or huge, it sounds like it's coming together well! How very powerful! =)
See you Monday!
There's a certain depth to novels that have been long-labored-over, and something visceral and powerful about characters that have been lived with by the author for many years... it sounds like Cobalt Blue is that kind of book. Very exciting!
And inspiring, as I can get all too caught up in the race to finish a ms, get it out there quick, b/c somehow there's a clock running... But there isn't. The world always has time and space for a really good novel. :)
Here's to taking the time to know the characters, find the story, and getting it down right.
Thanks. It's difficult at this point not to fling the last bits together a little too hastily. I'm avoiding that, and the effort not to refrain is creating a faint underlying anxiety. I mean, suppose the world ends the day before I'd have sent it off...
Exactly my downfall! (wrt your "suppose the world ends the day before...")
I came across an article recently that had to do with my agent meeting a particularly well-suited to my book (imo) high-powered editor for lunch back at the end of February, which was when I HAD BEEN aiming to get my ms to him. I spent a few minutes freaking over the idea that I had missed the boat by sending mid-March instead. Then reminded myself that, duh! - having lunch with editors is his JOB. He does that every single day. :)
With the whole "literary lightning" thing, it's sometimes hard to refrain from mind-spinning about the how/when/where/what if's to do with one's creative work.
My tactic this year is to (try my best to) get very focused and deep in the process of writing and leave the lightning monitoring to serendipity/synchronicity/my own deep sense of Knowing... some days I am really good at it, others not...:)
billie
I have that some-days-good, some-days-not pattern too. Maybe we all do.
A screenwriter friend of mine thought she had reached balance about this problem of urgency to finish. She thought it was because of some affirmations she was repeating every day. Then the screenwriters' strike ended, it became possible once again to make a deal, and she went back to fretting as before.
I guess the best strategy is enjoy the equanimity while you've got it--whatever inspires it.
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