The Love of Revision

There is an entire different part of my brain that cranks into gear with revision. This time around I'm firing my revision with visual and audio cues to keep me focused. It adds to the fun. (Egads, did I just call revision fun? Seriously I love it, as long as I keep a fresh work in the hopper as well.)

I've been working with www.darcypattison.com/revision/shrunken-manuscript. The concept is easy, visual, and for those who love the tactile paper approach it works well. In the real world, I scrapped the paper edition and moved straight to highlighting attributes I want to check, ie action, info dumps, dialog, clues etc and then switched my 12 pt NYTs font to 20%. Immediate color coded evidence of your sins! Info dumps glare out at you. Description that runs long blasts out. Dialog from talking heads (rather than using descriptive action within dialog sings out of key! Then that miracle view key again to blow up to full page to make your corrections on a copy you can actually read.

The other pleasure revision trigger was audible. I'm a great reader with no fear of crowds, okay I'm a phenomenal reader--years of storytelling and a BA in drama with an emphasis on oral interpretation sort of hardwired it into me. People enjoy my acting voices,they can clearly understand my words, and I can give them goosebumps or make them cry on cue. Reading my mss should have been a perfect fit, but when I tried it, I stopped short.

I couldn't stand the sound quality of Microsoft Sound Recorder. Then in a stroke of sheer Meg-non-tech-geek format I deleted the program to speed up my laptop. When I decided to try again I had to pick the brains of a young man at Best Buy. Solution: Free down load at www.AudacityDownload.org. Point of order, DO NOT ENTER audacity.com--the first thing that pops up is a notice that they ARE not the audio download site. Yikes, what fun huh? And they haven't figured out how to stick an ad on there for some income? Crazy people.

Anyway, the sound quality is more than acceptable. It has more buttons and cool stuff then I will ever figure out, but it's great. Keep it short. One page. Then listen,make corrections, and smooth out the rough spots.

So zap up your own revision work by using tactile and auditory sensors in your writer's brain and see what new twists and solutions you can discover as a result.

Of course for the ultimate caffeine fix and taste sense add chocolate.

Top Ten List of my favorite young adult boooks

Top Ten Lists:

My list: I'm with TK. I'm ready for an extended reading break. As a grandmother, I pulled out the books that made it through countless moves in various stages of abuse and many bookshelf cullings. These are the books that I can't wait to read to my grand-daughter.

• Any of Silverstein, but Where the Sidewalk Ends wins (2 copies-because my son and my daughter fought over it at bedtime)
• Courage of Sarah Nobel* by Dalgleish (because bravery comes is small bodies)
• Wrinkle in Time* by L'Engle (because love of family conquers all)
• Light in the Forest by Richter (because love overcomes culture clash)
• Isle of the Blue Dolphin* by O'Dell (because perseverance wins)
• From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E Frankweiler by Konisburg (because you can puzzle anything out--even if you're young, awkward and trying to grow up)
• Enchantress from the Stars* by Engdahl (because an anthropologist will sacrifice her life for others to keep a society's innocence)
• Number the Stars* by Lowry (because a young girl can make a difference against atrocity and war)
• 21 Balloons* by du Bois (technology can be wonderful and stem from creativity) or Gilgamesh or Beowulf or the Iliad (because no story can out do the ones that survive centuries)

Enchantress from the Stars was a Newbery Award honorable mention in 1971. Remembering it--reminded me so much of the movie Avatar. Bodies changed to walk among the natives, willingness to risk all for another society, and acceptance of the adopted society over the cavalier attitude of her fellow scientists etc. Humm, James Cameron is my age. I wonder if he read this book!

*recognized by the Newbery Award committee.

Things you do...

Sometimes we need a subtle reminder of what is important. Thank you cie for reminding me.

Quoting...
"For the most part my life is pretty good. Oh, there are things I'm working on, because that's what you do.

You:
move forward,
learn what you can,
try not to screw things up too much,
be good to the people and animals you love,
make a decent living
and have a little fun while you're at it.

This is life. "

http://ciesblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/i-must-be-good-today-i-must-be-good.html

C.T.Adams & Cathy Clamp's series continues with Serpent Moon coming out in March!

New Year resolutions

My New Year's resolution #1. Help others in need. Enjoy.

http://video.yahoo.com/network/100000089?v=5017561&l=100022574

What's peeking out between your words and your sentences?

The more I read queries, first pages, 1000 words etc the more I'm of the mind that agents aren't looking for the quick grab, the interesting set up. I've come to believe, that as much as they may not consider it--I think they are looking for something indefinable between the words and the lines. A well crafted interesting story may still not rise to the top, because the unique voice that speaks to the agent isn't there. Yet it's MORE than that. Maybe it's even something more hard to recognize than voice. Some illusive quality that peeks out from under the words that some people write.

Yes, I know that's very zen like to consider, but as I delve into the reality end of publishing, I realize that there is something else beneath the surface and indefinable in some writer's words.

Just late night musing, but if you've heard anything like this discussed, I'd love to do some reading on it.

May your holidays be wonderful and filled with peace. Meg

The inevitable sadness of letting go

Does anyone else find that writing the last quarter of a manuscript slows you down? I've charged through enough story/plot lines now that I know the inevitable (for me) is happening again. In the last chapters, I'm cutting out tiny parts of my heart.

Even though I have the next project lined up and occasionally sneaking away like a guilty lover in the middle of the night to visit the next and do research. Knowing that I have several more edits to go--there is always the overwhelming emotional goodbye that takes place in my head. My characters will never again be at this point in time, and in the case of Eve, Kai, and Randon their innocence seems to be slipping from my fingers and there isn't a thing I can do about it.

In the final chapters, I'll revel in their triumphs, I'll laugh at their jokes, and I'll let tears mix with pride as I let the raw freshness of the story go.

I don't know how J.K. Rowling ever got through those last pages. I hear she had to go to a hotel and cry her way through them. Do all writers do that, or do they become jaded over the years? Do you gain some 'professional distance' that makes it easier? Do you lose your mothering instinct?

I hope not.

Best on the horizon...

I want to write a book like this!

Holly Thompson's ORCHARDS, a novel in verse with a haiku feel, exploring the complexities of fourteen-year-old Kana's Japanese / Jewish / American identity and the ties that bind family and friends through tragedy, to Francoise Bui at Delacorte, in a six-figure deal, in a pre-empt, in a two-book deal, for publication in Spring 2011, by Jamie Weiss Chilton at Andrea Brown Literary Agency (World) jamie@andreabrownlit.com