Done with Chapter 1 again

I don't know what to call it--the rewrite of my rewrite--but I finished going over Chapter 1 after the major rethinking I've been doing. I took my focus questions, applied them to this material, and rewrote or developed a few scenes to make it all more closely align with (or set up, actually) the rest of the story. That was a bout three days of work. So maybe I can do the same with chapters 2-4 in the next couple weeks and get myself back to the point in the rewrite where I've been stalled since early January.

In reality I think where I am with Chapter 1 is finally having finished what anyone would call a strong first draft. I say this because my first draft didn't amount to much to more than a scaffold with no real movement or development and what I've been working on is developing it all.

I also say that because I am suddenly very preoccupied with problems of shape, organization and flow. When I notice things that don't work about chapter 1, it's less about where the story doesn't make sense or feels dead than it is about where it slows down or has unnecessary detail or doesn't have the impact I want because things are presented in the wrong order. My creative energies are drifting toward how I can move things around to bring out what I really want to emphasize.

I started to do that a little, but I'm trying to be disciplined about moving forward with the rewrite work in the rest of the book. I'm leaving Chapter 1 behind in a mess that can be fixed later. Part of the theory is that I'll fix it more effectively after I've done all of the rewrite. (I suppose an opposite argument could be made that I'll do the rewrite much more effectively if I've established the opening as well as possible.)

Anyway, for now my mantra is "just keep developing it." Go deeper.

Best laid plans . . .

This work is so humbling. During the rewrite process I don't think I've had a single day when I started and ended with the same sense of what the timeline and scope of work are going to be. Every time I think I know what I need to be doing, the path closes up and I have to bushwack until I find another one.

Today, I'm ending with a feeling that I've gained some time back compared to the course I thought I was on when I started this morning . . .

Over the last week or so I haven't been writing any but I have been doing a lot of thinking, note taking and brain storming. I went through my outline of all the chapters and made notes on what needs to be added to bringing them into closer alignment with the main path of the story. Scenes to add. Scenes where the dots need to be connected better. I also did a lot of brainstorming on a complicated subplot and where it will get developed.

That left me feeling like I basically had to start the rewrite over again. For example, Chapter 1 needs XYZ changes to get it focused. That's been scary, so I've been procrastinating. Really I dreaded it. It now feels like it will take years to finish.

So I started today finally, making a fresh copy of Chapter 1 and going to work on it. As I did that, though, I got the idea that maybe it won't be so slow. I needed two basic things to be established. In one case it required a new scene entirely and in another it was expanding and deepening a scene. I did that in a quick hour of writing. Just punch them in there. It's messy. The transitions don't work and the new materials is probably too abstract to be really interesting. They are probably in a tone that doesn't fit with the chapter. The rest of the chapter will need to be checked for continuity with the new material.

But, in a sense, I got done the big changes for that chapter that my rethinking in the last couple of weeks has provoked. If I want, I can go on to do the same thing with Chapter 2 tomorrow. And if the pattern follows, I can do a lot of the big fixes in the chapters that I've already done my first rewrite on in about a week. That would bring me up to Chapter 5, which I've been stuck on for awhile, and continue my rewrite from there, with more focus than I have had up until now.

That's the plan today. Let's see how I get humbled tomorrow.

Four days of stewing

Monday morning today, and I followed what's getting to be my routine. About 100 minutes of work this time, creeping up on a scene that seems ripe for development and then drafting a bunch of new material there--about 850 words. I'm doing it with more confidence--more of an idea about what end it is contributing to. I just wish I could sustain it for longer. It's going to take forever to finish this book.

I didn't work on it since Thursday morning, but it was on my mind all the time. It's hard to explain what that feels like. It's like I'm taking frequent little nibbles, each nibble being the working out of a small problem with a scene, moving each of a thousand pieces a little bit more in alignment with the rest, and then pushing it away for awhile until I feel hungry for another nibble. It's all happening more or less unconsciously and without deliberation. I just find myself contemplating some episode in the book again without intending to. I don't know why it makes its way into my thoughts.

But I'm glad it does. It makes me feel like I'm being productive even during the times when I'm not writing. It feels like real progress.

Alignment of character and plot

Today I was thinking mostly about something Jane Smiley says--that when you look back on a plot you should see an extended argument for the character credibly taking an action at the end what never would have seemed possible at the beginning.

It's like a magic trick--the reader gets two contradictory notions of the character at the beginning and the end and the plot makes the connection between them believable.

I'm realizing more and more that my first draft ending--really most of my plot--doesn't have my character doing enough. Too much observation and not enough response to what he observes.

So my exercise today was really just basic brainstorming of possible plot developments, particularly at the end. What wild things could my character do that seem unlikely for him to do?

The idea is that if I came up with something--say for example he self destructs in some way--then I would need to make sure during the rewrite that the plot is sneaking in a persuasive case that he would do that, even though it might seem very out of character at the beginning.

And the real idea--back to thinking about character--was to see if I provoke some insight about what my character is not like at all and what he might secretly be like that I haven't put my finger on yet.

I think it was productive. I got a lot of loopy ideas for the plot but also got myself more comfortable with a couple developments that I had been stewing on and seemed too loopy. Now they just seem like they need the right persuasive case to support them. I'm excited about trying to tell a more energetic story in the rewrite. And it got me more in touch with the humanity of my character.

That last point reminds of the famous comment by Richard Ford about stories ending like supernovas. I'll try to write about that next time.