One of the worst mistakes I ever made as a green novelist was to ignore the advice of editors and friends who told me certain manuscripts needed overhauling.
I simply refused. I had put the plot on the page and given birth to the characters, and in my view these were so set in stone, I might as well have inscribed them into granite tablets. Instead of revising these earlier novels, I gave up and moved on to new manuscripts.
Luckily, in more recent years I’ve learned how completely some stories can—and should—be torn apart and stitched back together again if they’re going to actually work as novels. By now I know that sometimes I have to perform some drastic surgeries on my manuscripts if I’m going to breathe any life into them–especially when certain characters refuse to behave or won’t play nicely with others.
For instance, in the novel I’m finishing up now, “Folly Cove” (coming out in October 2016), I began with the story of three sisters growing up in an historic inn. Their father had disappeared some thirty years ago, so their mother, Sarah, ran the inn on her own. At the start of the novel, two of the grown daughters return due to circumstances in their own lives—the third daughter has stayed—and all kinds of dysfunctional family hell breaks out.
One year and five complete revisions later, the bones of the story remain intact. Yet, the book has undergone such a drastic transformation that the feel of it is very different (and, I hope, better). Basically, I got three-quarters of the way through the novel and discovered that, instead of just three voices telling the story, I needed four: Sarah, the mother of those opinionated daughters, had some very strong opinions of her own and needed to air them.
Back I went. I tore apart the book, inserted Sarah, and I was off and running again.
By the end of the novel, though, I discovered that another main character—Sarah’s husband—needed a drastically different narrative arc. I had to revise his entire life story and, by doing so, I had to begin the novel again.
So how do you add or kill off a main character without murdering your novel?
Here’s the secret: you can’t just change the scenes with that character in them. You must have the patience to go back to the very beginning of the book and revisit each scene, knowing what’s up ahead. Ask yourself, “How will this youngest daughter feel when she finds this out about her father later? What sort of person is she to begin with?” and write accordingly.
I’m nearly done now. Revising “Folly Cove” has been such an exhausting process that occasionally I’ve had to lie down in the middle of writing a chapter, or even a scene, and put a pillow over my head so I can focus on the simplest sentences.
But this is how writing a novel is done: one sentence at a time, or even one word. Then you go back and do it all over again. And again. And maybe once more for luck.
Perhaps I’m making it sound too onerous here. Let’s try another analogy: writing a novel is sometimes like that game, Jenga, where you and your opponents remove blocks from a wooden tower, vying to see who can do it with the most skill and keep the tower standing. When the tower crashes on your turn, you know you weren’t quite skillful enough. It’s time to build another tower—but, all along, you’re using the same blocks.
See? Doesn’t that sound like fun?
6 Comments
Thanks for this Holly. I’m within 10,000 words of the end of Murder Go Round and last night a character I thought was a good but goofy person developed a sinister aspect. Now I must go back to the beginning and make adjustments accordingly. But I only have three weeks until deadline. Arrrgh!
argh, 3 weeks until deadline, yikes! But the book will be better for you realizing that now, Carol, I’m sure! Can’t wait to read it.
Good analogy. When I wrote The Right Wrong Man, I lost count of how many drafts I went through, thanks to my amazing critique group. And darn it, their suggestions/constructive criticism were right every time. That group is no longer around, and I’m desperately searching for another small group of critical readers to keep me, and my story, standing straight and tall, like in Jenga. 🙂
P.S. I’m reading Beach Plum Island now and enjoying the sisters and their stories.
Thanks so much, Pamela. And I’d say The Right Wrong Man is probably a much better book for all of your hard work. I had a great critique group that also dissolved, but luckily I’ve found a few writers to swap manuscripts with–I couldn’t do it without their help, for sure. Good luck finding another group.
Wow Holly, you keep writing posts that connect with my experience. My current novel-in-progress is called Virtual Eternity, a sequel to my debut thriller. As I was planning the story, all along I thought the main character would be a young woman in her thirties whose single-parent mother left her when she was in high school for some guy in Florida the mother met online. But as I got into detailed editing I realized this character had nothing to do for much of the middle part of the book. She was simply irrelevant when it mattered most. So I murdered her. Happily I got to do it in the planning stages rather than on the second or third re-write, which is a blessing.
Good luck finishing Folly Cove 🙂
Oh, man, that is too funny, Andrew–lucky you, to realize it in the planning stages! Maybe that’s going to be my new mantra for 2016: Don’t just write your book, plan it! Happy writing–sounds like a great plot.