Baby steps forward. After Sunday’s marathon, that’s what this week’s writing has felt like.  But forward momentum is forward momentum.  I finished my homework for the editing class, though as usual, when I add additional dialog and such after the first draft, it feels kerlunky to me.  It sticks out like a sore thumb, though I have no idea if anyone else sees it.  I need to get better at inserting new dialog gracefully.

Let me outline the problem for you. There’s a rhythm to writing, especially writing dialog.  It goes: dialog, reaction, dialog, business beat.  Or something like that, it varies, of course.   When I’m writing dialog or just scenes in general, everything flows.  Everything is organic and natural, because I’m inside each character’s head and what they’re saying or doing is what they’re really saying or doing. If that makes any sense.

Now, I go back to the scene later, during an editing pass. I am told I have to put in some lines of dialog to expand the character or to just insert a plot point or seed for later development.  So I get in character, I write the new dialog and drop it in and…it feels like I dropped a stone in the pond. Not a small stone and not in a good way.  The flow of: dialog, reaction, dialog, physical business (or whatever) is broken by this lump of new dialog.  It throws the rythum off.

So, I try to rewrite the scene from scratch, incorporating all the changes I want/need as well as what was there the first time.  It doesn’t work.  The scene changes, the characters react differently and what I had before, that worked, is gone.  What I end up with feels like a muddled mess, artificial and glaring.  Now the scenes before and after the new scene don’t blend in together.

I try to stich those bookend scenes into the newly-written scene.  Which goes right back to the problem I outlined in the second paragraph above: the newly-inserted content sticks out.

Grr.  THIS is one of the things I hate most about editing.  This is what frelled Angel Odyssey, re-writing and stitching and finally the beast at the end has a body but no heart anymore.  I loved that story and I edited it to death.  Can’t even look at it anymore.

I sure hope the editing class has a way of dealing with this. Because I’m tired of killing my books on the operating table.

 


Comments

Luna

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 7:26:06 am

It's funny because what you describe is what I feared that kept me from doing what needed to be done on ECD for so long. In my case it turned out to be easier than I thought. I still fear this when looking at some major or even some minor change or addition, but now I can reassure myself it will be ok.

One thing I do, and maybe it helps, is after making the change and reading only the paragraphs surrounding the change,I don't read. I move on to the next edit. Next time I read my changes, a minimum of several days have passed. Sometimes I find minor artifacts from the edit, and I fix those.

Maybe give that a try?

 

Tiyana

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 6:29:16 am

That makes sense.

To me it's like fixing holes in drywall with plaster: it's gonna be ugly at first until you literally smooth things over then properly finish it off so that it blends correctly with the surrounding wall treatment, and typically these things cannot be done all at once. In other words, like a first draft, you can't expect all alterations to look/sound good right off the bat.

But that's the pain and beauty of rewriting and editing, I suppose.

Sometimes rewriting a whole section works best, and sometimes you can just patch things up and smooth them over as you go along. Sometimes a section may demand a bit of both. O_O

Anyway, I'm partial to Luna's method. Progressive refinement, pretty much. I usually have to reread an entire section or the one before once to recall the flow and feel of what was taking place before I can figure out how to "realign" the alteration with the existing text and work from the beginning on through to the end of the story. (I think that's why my edits are taking longer than I expected because I feel I can't just "plop" things in and call myself done; I really have to ruminate over it--read what I already have, make a fix then come back later to reread it and adjust accordingly.)

 



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