Writer's "Serenity Prayer"
The interesting thing about revisions is they make you take another look from a distance at the book you've been involved in so very up close and personally for a long long time.
You see the things that seem reasonable to do and will make it better, and things that make you stop and say, "No, that doesn't feel right. It doesn't ring true." I can say that about Spence and Sadie now. I learned this again as I listened to the suggestions that my editor has offered for their book.
The whole thing, as far as I can see, comes down to making it a better book. Looking at these particular characters and their specific story and finding the heart of that story, then trying to enhance that, make it clearer, sharper, more vivid and tell it in the most effective way possible is, I believe, what writing is all about.
For me at least, it's not about lines or about length or about a certain setting or type of hero or heroine. It's about story. And in a romance it is about the relationship of two very specific people, not a cookie-cutter couple. Not characters whose lives can be interchanged or simply "changed" to make it "make sense" to someone else.
I learn this all over again every time I listen to someone else's take on my book. Often I find myself nodding in agreement when my editor suggests something. I say, "Yes, I can see that. Yes, he could do such and such and it would make his intentions clearer." But sometime I find myself going, "Oh, no. He would never do that!" And it's absolutely true.
It's odd how well I know those things. Or maybe it's not so odd. I have spent months with these people. I have lived in their souls and they in mine for half a year now. It is a gut level reaction at this point.
So I have come up with my version of the serenity prayer for writers dealing with revisions.
It goes like this: Help me to "tweak" the things I can in order to communicate the core of Spence and Sadie's story; help me to find the words to convince my editor that there are some things that cannot be changed . . . and then help us both have the wisdom to live with the difference!
You see the things that seem reasonable to do and will make it better, and things that make you stop and say, "No, that doesn't feel right. It doesn't ring true." I can say that about Spence and Sadie now. I learned this again as I listened to the suggestions that my editor has offered for their book.
The whole thing, as far as I can see, comes down to making it a better book. Looking at these particular characters and their specific story and finding the heart of that story, then trying to enhance that, make it clearer, sharper, more vivid and tell it in the most effective way possible is, I believe, what writing is all about.
For me at least, it's not about lines or about length or about a certain setting or type of hero or heroine. It's about story. And in a romance it is about the relationship of two very specific people, not a cookie-cutter couple. Not characters whose lives can be interchanged or simply "changed" to make it "make sense" to someone else.
I learn this all over again every time I listen to someone else's take on my book. Often I find myself nodding in agreement when my editor suggests something. I say, "Yes, I can see that. Yes, he could do such and such and it would make his intentions clearer." But sometime I find myself going, "Oh, no. He would never do that!" And it's absolutely true.
It's odd how well I know those things. Or maybe it's not so odd. I have spent months with these people. I have lived in their souls and they in mine for half a year now. It is a gut level reaction at this point.
So I have come up with my version of the serenity prayer for writers dealing with revisions.
It goes like this: Help me to "tweak" the things I can in order to communicate the core of Spence and Sadie's story; help me to find the words to convince my editor that there are some things that cannot be changed . . . and then help us both have the wisdom to live with the difference!
posted by Anne McAllister at 7:35 PM
3 Comments:
What a wonderful prayer.
Actually I tend to like revisions as at that point, I am fairly close to the story and can see the how and why. It is also the challenge. How do I maintain my vision and yet do what the editor thinks...
There again,I am still very much a novice at this...
I totally agree with your take on revisions, Anne.
It does make us look at what we've written (and been close to) and see it with a fresh eye, enabling us to ultimately tighten the story.
And no matter how daunting they seem when my ed first suggests them, when I sit down and take a good look at them, they make perfect sense!
Revisions are good.
(Remind me I said that when my next lot come in!!)
http://www.nicolamarsh.com
Michelle, The prayer works. My ed and I discussed it again at length today -- after I sent her a 9 page single-spaced play-by-play of the emotional throughline -- and I explained what I needed to keep for the vision and the book and the characters to be mine. And we found a way to make it work that we are both confident will preserve the integrity of the characters and the story and satisfy her concerns as well. Whew. Amen.
And Nic, I'll be sure to remind you! It isn't the 'tightening' that is the issue for me -- it's the vision. I'm not ever wedded to a particular scene, but the characters are who they are and they need to be given that freedom, not thrust into some strait-jacket that makes them a horrible imitation of someone else. That's the part I need to preserve. And my ed, fortunately, agreed.
Send me a heads-up when yours show up and I'll be there to cheer you on!
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