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And take to bursting out and burgeoning
Mar. 5th, 2010 03:21 pmNo, this entry is not about the spring, but about my Amazing Expanding and Shrinking Book. Unfortunately, no book or any other prose work of mine has ever been adept at shrinking, and this one is no exception.
Partly at Eric's behest, I'd made some impromptu decisions about where I should be in the revisions when, so that the project, being without external deadlines, would not languish too long. I actually did finish up with Chapter 12 (formerly 16) within a few days of when the calendar said I should. Eric had been strongly urging me to do a word count at this point, so I did.
Sixty-seven thousand, eight hundred and eighteen. What this demonstrates is that, if I had only to cut the book down by half, I'd be doing very well. But since I have to cut it by nearly 75%, this is Not Good Enough. I am taking a few days off to sulk and also to ponder, two states that often come together with me.
I have removed five characters and four subplots, as well as a lot of incidental repetition and indulgent description, but there is no way I will get to the end of this story in another 23,000 words. I haven't decided exactly what to do. There are a lot of intractable and sometimes contradictory requirements. This book is a sequel to two others, and the incluing I already did for the story-so-far was not sufficient, so that has to be done, and it is not exactly simple and straightforward, because simple and straightforward is not what I do. The characters remaining are heavily entangled still with those no longer present, and I'm not proposing to warp their personalities and the past by removing references to the missing. The plot is somewhat ornate, and there is only so far one can simplify it before it becomes simply silly. I use description for characterization, to distinguish points of view, and for pacing and thematic pressure, so I'm not sure how much of that I can get rid of or whether getting rid what I'm willing to sacrifice would even be sufficient.
David asked, when apprised of this dilemma, whether I didn't need to mow the overgrown lawn at one height and then again at a lower one, and this is in general how I want to proceed. However, I'd like to have a few principles in mind as I go through the rest of the book for the first time, even though I know a second mowing will be necessary. The only thing I have thought of so far is to significantly pick up the pace (I hate that a lot) so that what's missing won't have time to make itself known. However, even at the glacial pace of the original, readers complained about not seeing enough of characters who will be offstage for much of the second part of the book, so there are some limits to this approach. Still, at the moment, it's what I have.
I'm planning to save a copy of the first pass through, though, just in case.
P.
P.S. Hey, Jo, the LJ spellchecker thinks that "incluing" should maybe actually be "uncling." As in "uncle me no uncles," I assume, though it could also be a command to let go of something, to peel oneself off.
Partly at Eric's behest, I'd made some impromptu decisions about where I should be in the revisions when, so that the project, being without external deadlines, would not languish too long. I actually did finish up with Chapter 12 (formerly 16) within a few days of when the calendar said I should. Eric had been strongly urging me to do a word count at this point, so I did.
Sixty-seven thousand, eight hundred and eighteen. What this demonstrates is that, if I had only to cut the book down by half, I'd be doing very well. But since I have to cut it by nearly 75%, this is Not Good Enough. I am taking a few days off to sulk and also to ponder, two states that often come together with me.
I have removed five characters and four subplots, as well as a lot of incidental repetition and indulgent description, but there is no way I will get to the end of this story in another 23,000 words. I haven't decided exactly what to do. There are a lot of intractable and sometimes contradictory requirements. This book is a sequel to two others, and the incluing I already did for the story-so-far was not sufficient, so that has to be done, and it is not exactly simple and straightforward, because simple and straightforward is not what I do. The characters remaining are heavily entangled still with those no longer present, and I'm not proposing to warp their personalities and the past by removing references to the missing. The plot is somewhat ornate, and there is only so far one can simplify it before it becomes simply silly. I use description for characterization, to distinguish points of view, and for pacing and thematic pressure, so I'm not sure how much of that I can get rid of or whether getting rid what I'm willing to sacrifice would even be sufficient.
David asked, when apprised of this dilemma, whether I didn't need to mow the overgrown lawn at one height and then again at a lower one, and this is in general how I want to proceed. However, I'd like to have a few principles in mind as I go through the rest of the book for the first time, even though I know a second mowing will be necessary. The only thing I have thought of so far is to significantly pick up the pace (I hate that a lot) so that what's missing won't have time to make itself known. However, even at the glacial pace of the original, readers complained about not seeing enough of characters who will be offstage for much of the second part of the book, so there are some limits to this approach. Still, at the moment, it's what I have.
I'm planning to save a copy of the first pass through, though, just in case.
P.
P.S. Hey, Jo, the LJ spellchecker thinks that "incluing" should maybe actually be "uncling." As in "uncle me no uncles," I assume, though it could also be a command to let go of something, to peel oneself off.
