Category Archives: ‘rules’

Dealing with Major Revisions

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The next three posts will deal with approaching the problem of sizeable revisions. This post will offer some straightforward methods to help you tackle the problem. For the more whimsical approach, continue on to the next post. And for the professional’s opinion on handling developmental problems, please check out the post after that. All three posts will go up on the same day.

This material also appears, with a slightly different introduction, on my substack:: “Do you know where YOUR story is?”

It happened again…my critique group found some grievous issues that need to be un-grievous-ated. And it will mean digging and pulling and scraping and twisting around to carry that out. So….

After crying and tearing my hair out and downing a glass or two of motor-oil strength iced tea, here’s how I did it…and how I will do it again, when I have to.

Revision is difficult. No writer will dispute that. It is, however, a completely necessary evil. Our writing suffers, even dies without it.

Handling things like grammar, spelling, punctuation, the occasional awkward word or sentence is easy. Deciding to eliminate words you’ve already labored over is difficult. And doing wholesale re-writes, changes, and adjustments feels absolutely impossible. It isn’t.

Once you have reached the conclusion that segments need to be either reworded or replaced, you need to stop and identify both what the actual problems with the current words are and how they need to be replaced. (See my guest’s upcoming post on how to analyze and develop your story revisions.)

When you have done the analysis and at least some of your new material is ready, it’s time to face the page and dig in. This is where it breaks down for so many writers and results in so many days of hiding in bed, taking long walks, cleaning the garage or simply drinking the comforting beverage of your choice by the gallon. I have faced this same paralysis, and while I don’t have a perfect remedy, I’ve figured out a few things that help in getting–and keeping– going on this task.

Step #1: Getting your words ready.

Whether you do this as a standalone task or tackle it by working within your manuscript, start with fixing the obvious. What will replace the words you/your editor/your reader/critique group have decided need to go? Everything else will depend on getting this set. It may be improving a description, changing dialogue, even laying out a new plotline with all that entails.

Take your time. Plot carefully so as to disrupt as few other passages as possible–but make sure you are happy with the new material. The point is to improve your manuscript, and skimping on new material to save time… won’t. It won’t save agony either. Put as much in print as you can, and make sure there’s a special storage place in your brain for the potential things you’ll need to add/change.

Step #2: Locating relevant scenes and passages.

Check your manuscript carefully for anything related to the offending passage(s). This is where search functions are so handy. Look for words that ONLY go with the material to be changed. An easy example is a name change, which can usually be accomplished entirely with FIND AND REPLACE. If you’re not changing a name, searching out a character’s name can still help you find much of the related material, especially if the action centers around that character. Using DOCUMENT MAP (MSWord) when you write helps, as that can track chapters and other headlines.

Changes have repercussions, so any succeeding passages that relate will need to be adjusted based on the new material. This also applies to ‘set-up’ sections that precede the segment that is being revised. Highlight them, underline them, copy them out–use whatever organizational process works for you, but make sure you don’t miss any.

Step #3: Take-down and build-up.

This next step is somewhat personal. For some writers, seeing the words written on the page makes them immutable. Others like to leave them on the page as a sort of reference. Personally, most of the time I’m in the first group. So when I’m having to replace content, I completely remove it, but I copy it over to another document–just in case. With open space, my brain is free to focus on the new material and where it will lead me. You may choose to write differently, keeping the old material on the page so you can cannibalize it as you write.

The joy of doing this hard work is that as you tackle it, new ideas arise and come together like puzzle pieces. You see the improvements as they hit the page. Something clicks when you get the right words in place.  And the new ideas that sprout up will make your manuscript even better.   

Now the related material needs to be coordinated with what was just written. I tend to start by backing up to preceding material, the set-up scenes. When a change is made there, it will create its own ripples that will need follow-up. It may affect more things than just what you’ve re-written. Taking care of these makes this step more complicated than dealing with the material that comes after your big change. When you go on to deal with the ramifications that cascade from the changes, working through them will be a little more straightforward. Granted, things can all get a little gnarled up, but working through them makes the writing stronger.

This is not the only way to deal with large revisions. Every writer develops their own preferred technique, often accompanied by pretzels or chips, beer or tea, or even a huge bowl of grapes. Some do yoga between rewrites, or take a break for a walk in the yard. You get the idea. The important thing is to find a technique that works for you. You don’t want to be held from crossing the finish line because you are overwhelmed by revision work. Knowing you have a method that lets you face the task with relative comfort sets you up to deal with the writing with confidence.

Be sure to read the next two posts for more on dealing with Major revisions.

An Analogy of Sorts

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This is the second of three posts dealing with approaching the problem of sizeable revisions. The first post offered some straightforward methods to help you tackle the problem. This post takes a more whimsical approach. And for the professional’s opinion on handling developmental problems, please check out the post after this one. All three posts will go up on the same day.

This material also appears, with a slightly different introduction, on my substack: “Do you know where YOUR story is?”

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So, we’ve discussed some steps to take to get to work on making big revisions.

“But, what,” you say, “if this is a really big, extensive revision with tentacles of related material all over the place? Where do I start?”

Okay, this may seem weird, but it’s the analogy that occurred to me. Bear with me.

When I houseclean, it tends to be in giant gulps. Things being in the wrong place seems to be my biggest–and to be honest, easiest to solve–problem. But the idea of sorting out the belongings of seven rooms and getting them to their rightful places is daunting. For me, the general process goes like this.

1.   I start with one room, and I remove everything from it that doesn’t belong. Some items, the easy ones, I immediately put away. But others are not so easy. For those, I have to answer some questions.

  •    Who do they belong to?
  •    Does the owner want to keep them?
  •    If not, which trash disposal method is needed (regular or recycle)?
  •   If they want to keep them, where do they go?
  •    Do I need to put them away myself or create a pile for the owner to deal with (usually under threat of dire punishment if they don’t)?

These items usually end up at a neutral location, waiting to be sorted as these questions are answered. Some of them I already know are my responsibility, but I also know that more items like them await me in other rooms, So I hold off putting them away until I have them all together.

   2.   I go to the next room and repeat.

   3.  As I accumulate what I believe are all the items in a category (let’s go with socks) that go to one room, I take those socks to the room where they belong and either put them away or leave them there for the owner.   (Re #1.e, items like socks I might put away myself.) The items collected for someone else at the neutral location that I don’t handle remain in a pile for the owner to deal with upon notice.

   4.   Items that I know I’m putting away are piled until I need more sorting space, or until I am pretty sure they are all the things in that category. Or some other reason. This sounds a little capricious, but changing up how I work occasionally makes it easier.

  5. At last all items have been dealt with and put away, and all that is left for me to do is to nag someone else to take care of their stuff.

Tackling any big chore is tough. And of course, we were discussing changing and sorting story segments, not socks. The processes can be similar—start with the easy stuff, where you know what to do. Make decisions about where the words belong and which characters are responsible for them. Keep putting things where they belong until you are done.

The key is to organize a large task in a fashion that suits your mental/emotional needs and then go at it.

Apply the cliches if you want:

“Rome wasn’t built in a day.” 

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” 

“There is only one way to eat an elephant: a bite at a time.”

And how long did it take to build the pyramids anyway? Don’t despair, revision won’t take you that long. You can conquer it, and it actually does get easier. I have even heard writers say that revision is their favorite part of writing, because the words are already there and simply need to be fixed.  Good luck!

Be sure to read the previous post and the following one for more on dealing with Major revisions.

TIP ~ INKAS ~ #6

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The NEWS in SPORTS! Sportswriting

2–3 minutes

The headline gives the best clue to INKA #6. SPORTSWRITING is all about writing the news of the sports world. It can be anything from a coverage of elementary school field day to the SuperBowl. The activity and venues change, but not the reporting.

Sports reporting captures the essence of a sport; it puts the fans in the seats and gives them all the latest info on the game, the players, and how the team is doing. It may not be the next best thing to being there, but it provides essential information to the “other members of the team”–the fans.

Sportswriting–which includes narrative stories–may be about the sport itself, and may be written as an essay, an editorial, or even a piece of fiction. The important thing is that a sport or sports is at the center of the story, and it is still geared towards–the fans.

The broadness of this category makes it seem hard to find the common thread in writing for it.

What does “Days of Thunder” have to do with the news report of the high school football scores? Or the high school golf team?

For that matter, what does the high school golf team story actually have to do with a story on Tiger Woods?

The first commonality is the obvious one: the focus is a sport and its players.

The next is the fact that, although the medium differs (“Days of Thunder” is a film, as is “Friday Night Lights”; “Dirt” is a documentary; The 1997 Masters: My Story is Tiger Woods’s autobiographical reflection on that tournament), sports stories help relate a sport to its fans by providing insight into the game, how it is played, and what its athletes experience.

While some readers may look on the information simply as the facts of their team, many others will vicariously experience a sport through the story, or perhaps relive their own sport highs and lows. There is an invisible thread–or even rope–that connects a sport and its fans, binding them together and creating a self-sustaining culture vital to the their lives in terms of physical, philosophical, and emotional well-being. Entire industries are built around sports and their venues and events. The support the industry receives is indicative of how important sports are to fans. This makes for a ready audience of readers for written material and viewers for video.

It’s about the sport and the fans; and there’s a reason the word ‘fan’ stems from fanatic.

Sportswriters must understand their sport, either through personal experience or research. That research must include attending sporting events, experiencing the crowd, and even trying their hand at the sport (no matter how silly they might feel about it). Interviews with players, coaches, trainers, and even physicians and phys ed teachers are essential to understanding what you are writing. Talking with fans or statisticians and the kids who tend the balls and bats is also effective. Because essentially writing about sports is still writing about people. People and their passion for an activity. It’s about the sport and the fans; and there’s a reason the word ‘fan’ stems from fanatic.