by Jenna | Mar 26, 2020 | Writing Articles
We’re living through an unprecedented event in our modern era. Life has changed, radically, in what felt like over night. The word “unprecedented” feels wholly inadequate, honestly. Surreal? Unholy? Disastrous? LIFE ALTERING. Nothing will be the same after this. At least I very much hope that will be true, in the sense of the many broken systems in our world improving for the better as a result of all this.
I’ve been watching this virus since January, feeling like Cassandra, but hoping I was wrong (usually my fears DON’T become reality). And yet, here we are.
I (fortunately or unfortunately?) just read two books about pandemics right before all this started. So. There you go. Lots of swirly bits of fear, dread, terror, hope, and love all twirling around together in an angsty pile of … angst. It’s not like I didn’t already have a full soundtrack of existential dread playing in my mind, what with the state of our government and climate crisis already in play.
So. Mostly, I’m working to stay as calm as I can (which is entirely variable from moment to moment), take care of myself and my family, look for ways to help, and write as I can. And “can” sometimes means “can’t.” Sometimes it means writing articles like these, just to keep putting words on the page.
And speaking of writing, writers everywhere are suddenly facing new circumstances. Some of us have kids at home, for an unknown duration (my guess is the fall start of the school year). Some of us (like in California) have been under a “shelter-in-place”/”stay at home” order for some time already (thank goodness). Some of us have more time on our hands than we’re used to because we’re working from home or unable to work. Some of us have less time than usual to write because of all the other external impacts on our time, plus the internal stresses we’re managing.
It’s easy to think we “should” be writing and writing and writing. But it’s not like this is just some kind of global vacation. There’s a lot going on, constantly, much of which we can’t see.
In some ways this could be a writer’s dream. Lots of forced time at home, with potentially lots of time to write. But that’s only a percentage of us. If we’re homeschooling and working from home, things are actually more complicated, not less.
So what do we really do about writing during times like these?
On Writing
Here are some thoughts on writing for you in this current period of uncertainty:
- Please don’t feel guilty if you’re not writing (yet). This is an entirely unusual situation and we’re all grappling with a massive reorientation of how life even works on this planet. Give yourself space and time to be, rest, think, and process. If the moment arises when you’re struck by the urge to write (anything), go for it. Some are pointing out that Shakespeare wrote King Lear during the plague. That’s lovely. Did he have his kids and family home 24/7? Who was getting him food? You don’t have to be Shakespeare. Everyone’s circumstances are different.
- It’s okay if your pre-pandemic writing projects change or hold less interest for you mid- or post-pandemic. Your interest may return in a few weeks, months, or never. Your projects may change. (Stephen King tweeted about this recently.) Regardless, it’s okay to trust yourself and see what comes. Intense times result in massive shifts in culture, consciousness, and creation. We are likely to have epiphanies about what we want to write mid- and post-pandemic. I expect an entirely new wave of creativity to explode as a result of this period of time.
- It’s also okay to keep working on what you were working on before. If you’re able to keep writing, go for it! Writing is a sanctuary for writers. A place to escape, as well as our job as professionals. In many ways this can be an incredible opportunity to hunker down and focus. (I’ll be sharing an article on the Final Draft blog soon about some tech tools to help.)
- It helps to hold writing as your important work in the world. Even if you’re not working professionally as a writer, thinking of writing as your calling, vocation, and/or profession can help you remember — even in the middle of a pandemic! — who you are and what you were put here to do. Of course, if the house is literally burning down or you’re sick, you won’t be thinking about writing. Of course not. But assuming you’re healthy, safe, and have your basic survival needs taken care of, writing becomes more possible, and sticking to your work is your job.
- If you’re writing with kids at home, get really creative. I’m doing most of my writing while my husband takes care of the kids (a rare treat since he can’t go in to work and he can’t work from home) as well as getting up before the rest of the family to write when I’m alone. For other writers, we might have to write later in the evening, or at lunch time, or while the kids are having some screen time. (And yeah, we’re letting our screen time rules be looser, while also having them do their homeschooling work.)
- On the hard days, write from bed, do “ebb” writing, or write morning pages. If you’re feeling overwhelmed with grief or fear, it’s hard to be creative. I’m finding that sitting in my bed with the covers drawn up, the cat on my feet, and my laptop on a bed table helps create a little cocoon of coziness that’s easier to write in. You can also focus on the easy stuff (that’s the “ebb” writing, hat tip to Naomi for that one) and work on formatting or continuity checks. And sometimes morning pages or love letters to yourself are the way to go. Writing is writing.
- Even if you suddenly have tons of time on your hands to write, you’ll be dealing with resistance, maybe even more than usual. Writers often fantasize about writing in isolation (cabin in the woods, anyone?). But the reality is that suddenly having lots of time can trigger more resistance. And especially when fear and uncertainty take hold, it’s super hard to focus on ANYTHING, let alone write. Remember that writing also involves a high level of decision making, also difficult in times like these. However, you CAN make small moves and take small actions to move forward, even now.
- Reach out and connect. Writers are often used to working from home, but we’re not used to being limited in our interactions quite this much. There are lots of lovely ways to connect with other writers at this point, including on social media. In my Called to Write community, we’ve switched over to meeting on Zoom so we can see each other’s faces. We’re also meeting more frequently, and the turnout for our daily writing sprints is high. It’s SO nice to write together. (Please come join us if you’re looking for structure, support, and community for your writing.)
- Know that writing and art have a huge role to play in survival and recovery. Art, entertainment, fiction, and non-fiction are needed right now, and will continue to be needed as time goes on. How we deliver and receive writing and movies may change. It may not. We don’t know yet. But as writers and artists we have a role to play in the emotional well-being, mental health, and recovery of our global community. The world needs us.
On Self-Care and Grounding
And a few thoughts on self-care and grounding:
- STAY HOME and take care of yourself and your loved ones. At some point or another, we’re all likely to confront this virus personally, somehow. Above all else, your health and well-being must come first. This means doing all the things we’re reading about online, like washing hands, wiping down surfaces, staying home (please stay home, no matter how low risk you might be, in order to help flatten the curve for everyone), using social distancing if you must go out (and making sure it’s a “must” not a “want”), touching faces only with clean hands, staying hydrated, eating healthy food, getting as much sleep as you can, exercising in creative ways, and resting.
- Do things that feel good to you. At my house, with the kids home, in addition to homeschooling, we’re playing games, working on a garden project, baking, exercising, and watching movies together.
- Acknowledge the grief. This is a massive change and loss we’re all experiencing right now, together. We’re grappling with hardcore survival fears right now and seeing the world change in a way we’ve not experienced in our lifetimes. This means we’re grieving. Grieving the restrictions we’re facing, grieving the future, grieving personal losses. So much. And the sensitives and empaths among us will be particularly affected by the collective energy of grief, fear, anxiety, and sadness right now. IT’S OKAY to be having a hard time right now. Grief is heavy, and hard. It helps to acknowledge what we’re feeling. This is grief.
- Remember that things will change, eventually. Elaine Aron mentions this in a blog post written for highly sensitive people (many writers are HSPs). Things may change for the worse before they get better, but they will change. If or when you can, notice that we may see some positives ultimately coming out of this situation. I hope already that voting by mail could become the norm, which will help so many more people be able to participate in our democracy. Carbon emissions are dropping, and we may realize we can make more radical changes to protect the climate. We now have a much, much better understanding of what it means to share a planet and be in this together. There are dolphins in Venice.
A few things helping me right now…
- Liz Gilbert’s “Facing Fear With Compassion” meditation on the Insight Timer app. This is a free offering inside the Insight Timer app as well as on their website, in which Liz offers a love-focused practice to help deal with fear.
- ScreenwritingU’s “Screenwriters Survival Kit” article for writers about managing during this time. My mentor Hal Croasmun put together this guide to help writers stay safe, sane, and productive.
- Chuck Wendig’s article, “It’s Okay That You’re Not Okay”. Chuck is someone I keep turning to and I find his thoughts on our world are often aligned with mine, and reassuring. He swears, so if that bothers you, heads up. He’s also the author of one of those pandemic books I mentioned. ;)
- “Cutting Through Fear” by Tsultrim Allione (audiobook). Chapter 2 is a guided meditation about releasing fear I’m finding helpful though it will feel very out there to some.
- “Pandemic” poem by Lynn Unger on Steven Pressfield’s website. I’ve come across this one in a few different places and love it.
- “Kiwi Virtues in a Time of Trouble” by Steven Pressfield. I loved this article from Steve about the value of patience and skills for hard work. It felt real and grounding.
- “In the Time of the Pandemic” on Kitty O’Meara’s website. Also love this one.
- “I Spent a Year in Space, and I Have Tips on Isolation to Share” by Scott Kelly. Who better to advise us about how to navigate isolation than an astronaut?
- “That Discomfort You’re Feeling Is Grief” on the Harvard Business Review, an interview with the world’s foremost expert on grief, David Kessler, about the grief we’re all feeling right now.
- Naomi’s new blog. My pal Naomi Dunford has a new personal blog about her own quarantine, which I’m loving.
- “Making Art In a Crisis” by Dong Won. Another piece about the illusion of time and space for art that’s permeating the zeitgeist right now and the pressure to perform.
Your turn
How are you? Are you able to write? What are you challenged by right now? What’s making it easier to write?
Let me know in the comments. I’d love to hear from you right now, and I’ll happily answer questions in the comments if you have them.
by Jenna | Mar 23, 2018 | Writing Articles
There are many stages of writing.
There are the practical stages — inspiration, idea, concept, development, outlining, drafting, revising, editing, polishing, and proofing.
There are the emotional stages of a writing project — from eureka! to discouragement to resolve to despair to euphoria to apathy to completion. It’s an up and down journey sure to delight the most ardent theme park enthusiasts. Or not.
There are also a set of career stages in a writer’s life. We might experience them as a progression as we evolve from feeling the call to write to treating it the way a professional does, or we might move in and out of these states along the path to writerdom.
For example:
- Wanting to write but not writing.
- Writing occasionally, ephemerally, but not quite getting anywhere.
- Binge writing in a big burst of enthusiasm, to meet a deadline, or in a NaNoWriMo-fueled burst, but then crashing into writing aversion/burnout for a long period of time, maybe even months or years.
- Writing regularly and consistently, but maybe not as productively as you’d like to be, possibly struggling with creative blocks along the way.
- Writing like a pro.
Before you hit the pro stage (and sometimes even then), these stages can be sometimes more fulfilling than others, depending on where you are in your writing career.
For example, if you’ve been wanting to write forever, and you’re finally writing every day, even for just a few minutes day, that’s a huge win. On the other hand, if you’ve been plodding away at a draft, day in and day out, and feeling like you’re never getting anywhere, it might be time for a push with your writing.
I generally work with writers in my writing community who want to go from not writing to writing. From writing sporadically and inconsistently, to writing daily. (Or as one of our writers put it, writers who want to go from whining to writing. LOVE that.)
In the online writing intensives I run, I work with writers who are ready for more. They might have the daily writing thing down, but want to put in a focused burst of work on their books or screenplays. This usually happens when they have a goal they’re trying to reach and want a boost of progress to get there.
Here are some examples of times you might be ready for a big push with your book or script.
Signs You Might Be Ready to Go for a Push with Your Writing
- You’re willing and able to carve out the time and space in your life for an ultra-focused period of writing. This means being willing to clear your schedule of any and all extraneous commitments and otherwise scaling back where you can (stockpile your freezer now!) to make it easy on yourself.
- You have a story idea you want to develop or outline and want to (need to!) carve out some time to do it. Putting in a few weeks of intense attention can get you to the finally “ready to write pages” stage and feel incredibly satisfying.
- You’re writing, but you’re stuck in a rut or feeling complacent about your work and your progress. There’s nothing like doing a big push on your book or script to get you out of your comfort zone and operating at a higher level of productivity. You’ll want to make sure you have a way to keep writing once you get to the other side of a focused burst of writing so you don’t crash and burn afterward.
- You’ve done all the prep work for a new project but you’re hesitating and holding back from diving into the actual writing. If you’re sitting on the edge of the pool, scared to even dip in a toe, now might be exactly the right time to take the plunge. It can be easier to face all the resistance in one go, especially if you find a way to write alongside other writers to help support you.
- You’re in the middle of writing a book or a big rewrite and you’re struggling to see the light at the end of the tunnel. The dreaded middle of any stage of book is called the dreaded middle for many reasons, including that it’s just plain hard to get through. Remember — when you’re going through hell, keep going. This is a good time to put on a burst of speed, keep your head down, and keep working.
- You’re staring down a deadline and procrastinating or struggling to pace yourself and you want to avoid the binge-burnout cycle you’re setting yourself up for. Many writers (especially those dealing with second novel syndrome, I find) get stuck in procrastination when there’s a deadline coming up — not close enough to spur you into action, but not far away enough to totally ignore. This makes for a constant and uncomfortable low level of guilt and anxiety. Whether you’re working on a self-imposed deadline, a publisher’s deadline, or other submission deadline, using a focused, structured burst of writing to help pace yourself can be life and sanity saving, plus you’ll be far better positioned not to lose your writing habit on the other side.
- You’re making progress, kind of, but you’d really like to put some mileage on this thing and see your page count climb. Along the same lines as the “dreaded middle,” sometimes you just need to see something, anything happening to feel some sense of progress and accomplishment (so helpful with these long form writing projects).
- You need a safe space to write. If when you’re part of a critique group (or even just hard on yourself in your internal mental conversations), you may want a separate, critique-free writing “space” where you’re just committed to the process regardless of anything else happening. It can be both healing and relieving to “just write” and is particularly so when you’re writing with a group of like-minded writers who help you normalize the experience of writing.
- You wish you could go on a retreat or disappear to a cabin in the woods but you can’t quite swing it with your budget (or your family, job, or other commitments). Finding a way to create a writing retreat for yourself from the comfort of your own home is a lovely alternative and can fulfill much of that desire in you to “get away and write.”
- You know what you want to write but you’re having trouble overcoming resistance. That monster called resistance can be handled in a couple of ways. One is by sneaking past it in small increments of writing time, which is an excellent way to get started. The other is to jump in, full bore, and write like your life depends on it. The trick is having a structured support to help you keep going afterward.
If You’re Ready to Go Big, Here’s How
If you’ve decided you’re ready to make a big focused burst of progress with your writing, while there are certainly options, like creating a self-led writing intensive for yourself or attending a writing retreat (if you can swing the travel, lodging, and retreat costs), I’m a fan of online writing intensives to help you focus and get the most bang of your buck.
There are certainly times when a writing intensive is NOT the way to go — if you’re dealing with creative wounds for example, or having trouble figuring out what to work on. If you’re wondering if you’re ready for a big burst of writing progress, shoot me an email or ask me a question in the comments and I’ll be happy to talk it over with you.
Featured image photo by rawpixel.com on Unsplash
by Jenna | Mar 20, 2018 | Writing Articles
Let’s talk about writing. And overwhelm.
First, a story.
When I was a kid, my parents used to take us on high Sierra backpacking trips. They were hard. We’re talking about high-altitude, have to hit 10,000 feet before you get to the lake kind of hard. With backpacks. On super steep trails. In the blazing sun. I was also prone to altitude sickness, so there wasn’t a lot of incentive to go higher, other than the incredible beauty of the alpine lakes and the satisfaction we had once we reached our destination.
Which was actually a hell of an incentive.
Every summer my sister and I would slog up the steep trails, managing the weight of our packs on our sore shoulders, the blisters forming on our feet, the headaches creeping in, the tiredness, and the whininess that would sneak into our voices. My dad always brought up the rear, even though he was the fastest and strongest hiker.
In every trip, there were always points along the way where I begged to stop. I’d despair that we’d ever get there. My dad was my coach at those times. Giving up wasn’t an option. He was always patient, calm, and quiet. He’d just wait with me until I was ready to get up and keep going.
He’d say, “Just keep putting one foot in front of the other. Don’t think about how far it is to the top. Just look at the trail right in front of you, and focus on getting to the next bend in the trail. Then the next, and the next.”
And bit by bit, we’d get there.
Overwhelm In Writing
As writers, we often hear the line from E.L. Doctorow, “Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”
Usually this quote is used to describe the process of figuring out a story and how we find our way through it, bit by bit. But we can also use it to describe and understand the entire process of writing, from first draft, to rewrite(s), to publication, and to marketing, including dealing with any and all overwhelm at each of those stages.
When we’re writing, the big gap between here (where you are right now) and there (where want to end up — done! finished! published!) can feel pretty darned overwhelming. So overwhelming, in fact, that you might be wondering if you’re even capable of making it.
Underlying Causes & Solutions for Addressing Overwhelm
Let’s dig a little deeper into where you might be feeling overwhelmed, and then look at some solutions to help you find your way through.
6 Underlying Causes of Writing Overwhelm
When you’re feeling overwhelmed, no matter what stage of writing you’re in, here’s what might really be going on:
- There’s so much left to do, and it really is overwhelming. Writing a book is a long haul project. So is a screenplay, when you consider the many drafts a script often goes through before it’s produceable and marketable. There’s a ton of work left to do, and it’s easy to feel disheartened when staring up the face of the enormous mountain you’re attempting to scale. (Hint: You’re looking at the mountain, not the trail.)
- You’re scared to put yourself out there. Writing a book can trigger self-doubts, fears, procrastination, perfectionism, and resistance. When you’re conscious of it, you can feel overwhelmed by the enormity and responsibility of it all. When you’re less conscious of it, you can get stuck in writing overwhelm as a kind of “safe haven.” It can feel easier to go around in circles than to take the risk of fulfilling your big dream.
- You’re doubting that you’re up to the challenge. Hand-in-hand with #1, above, you might not even feel sure you have what it takes to write at the level required to succeed. You might be losing confidence in yourself, your book, and your ability to write. If you’re in this place you may be so overwhelmed that you’re considering giving up on your book, or worse, giving up on writing altogether. This is the kind of overwhelm that comes from a crisis of confidence.
- You’ve lost your way. Sometimes you can end up feeling lost, like you’re not sure how to solve the story problems you’re facing (or even to figure out what the problems truly are), or you’re overwhelmed with a sheer quantity of content and disorganization, and you can end up going around in circles, feeling paralyzed, dazed, and confused. The fear here is that you’ll never find your way.
- It feels like you’re running out of time. Many of us have this ticking clock inside our heads about when it’s okay and when it’s too late to “arrive” on the scene with our finished books. The fear here is that it’s too late for you, which creates a sense of overwhelm around trying to fit way too much into too little time.
- You’re feeling overwhelmed by life, too. We’re busy. All of us. Our culture, our world, and our lifestyles seem to be busier than ever and only getting worse. Finding time to write seems darned near impossible when you’re juggling a job, kids, friends, pets, family, spouses, and more. The fear here is that you don’t have the time and space in your life to actually pull off making time to write, which again leaves you feeling overwhelmed.
6 Solutions for Moving Past Overwhelm and Into Action
Here are six solutions to help you overcome the overwhelm and move into action with your writing.
- Keep putting one foot in front of the other, just like my dad taught me. The most basic antidote for overwhelm is to take the smallest possible steps, one by one, to move through it. This means making a plan for how you’ll approach your writing (or rewriting), and working on it in the smallest possible pieces until it’s done. In fact, the more resistance, fear, or doubt, you’re feeling, the smaller the chunk you’ll want to work on (even if you spend all day working on small pieces). If you keep your focus on the next step right in front of you, you can get through to the end.
- Get mad. Resistance is a smothering force. It paralyzes you and bogs you down, until you begin to feel hopeless and like you’ll never succeed. Anger, on the other hand, holds the powerful energy of action. When resistance gets you down, get mad. Use the energy of being a little (or a lot!) pissed off that resistance is trying to beat you to get fired up and get back to work. When I feel discouraged, my fighting spirit rises up in me and says, “No way! I’m not letting resistance win.”
- Use a map, aka, remember your Big Why. When you’re lost and overwhelmed, remind yourself of your Big Why. Think about (and write down, for next time) WHY you’re writing this book. What do you love about it? What are your deepest reasons for wanting to write this book? Reconnect with your passion and love and energy for the book. Pair that with the energy of anger to light a fire inside yourself.
- Get help for the climb. Sometimes, you need help to reach the top of the summit. This could look like working with a coach, joining a writing group, or partnering up with a buddy. Someone who will be patient, supportive, kind, and compassionate without giving up on you for a single second.
- Make a push of progress on your book. A nifty trick for dealing with overwhelm is making a focused, concerted burst of progress on your story. Writing solidly, with focus, helps you regain your sense of identity and your confidence in yourself as a writer. This is what Tony Robbins calls “massive action.” And though I generally advocate for regular daily writing as the primary antidote for resistance, sometimes we need to take powerful action to restore our confidence, energy, and momentum. You can do a focused writing intensive to help you make that happen.
- Remember your ultimate destination. Not only are you writing this book or screenplay right now, you’re also working to fulfill your overall writing career goals. This project, right now, is part of the map you’re using to get there. While this might sound like contradictory advice, holding the big view of what you’re doing and why you’re doing it can help with taking the small steps along the trail.
The reward?
Reaching that ultimate destination. Seeing the world you want to see, from the great heights you’ve earned, step by step.
1. Featured image by AJ Yorio on Unsplash
2. Unsplash
by Jenna | Jan 25, 2018 | Writing Articles
It’s mid-January. If you “won” NaNoWriMo, you’ll have 50,000 words of raw material for a new novel. If you didn’t make it to the 50k mark, you’ll still have pages to work with.
But now what?
Where do you start, in shaping your big block of marble into something with legs, something that works, something that’s marketable?
Although many writers, already know this, it’s worth stating: Under most circumstances, do not revise from the beginning to the end of your draft in order.
When you’re working with a first draft, you first have to assess what you have before you start revising. At this stage, editing, polishing, proofreading, and wordsmithing are premature, unless you’ve written a near perfect draft, which is unlikely at this stage.
Unless you’re a thoroughly seasoned writer (in which case you probably aren’t doing NaNo), if you revise chronologically, you’ll most likely find major structural and development issues in your story and end up cutting or substantively changing the work you’ve just spent hours editing, which can be heartbreaking and a big deterrent to getting to a truly final and finished product.
What you’ll want to do instead is craft a revision plan.
Here are 11 tips to get you started.
11 Tips for Revising Your NaNoWriMo Draft
1. Think of your NaNo draft as an “intuitive draft.”
We’ve all seen and read the Hemingway quote, “The first draft of anything is sh*t,” and while that can help us overcome our perfectionism and get something down, I’ve come to see labeling our first passes as a “sh*tty first draft” or a “vomit draft” does a disservice to this valuable and important stage of work.
The term “intuitive draft” is thanks to one of my screenwriting mentors, Corey Mandell. I love his notion of seeing a first rough draft as a window into the souls of our characters and the feeling tone of the story. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but from it you gain valuable raw, fresh writing to guide your next steps.
Other names I like are “lightning draft” or “speed draft.” While this isn’t a hard and fast rule — you get to call it what you like, after all — I want to encourage you not to devalue your rough work but instead celebrate it as a valuable start.
2. And speaking of celebrating, did you?
And before you begin revising, celebrate! It’s important to acknowledge the work you’ve done. In the long-haul of writing a long form novel, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the work you have yet to do, and to dismiss or diminish or forget what you have already done.
I mean, dude (can I call you dude?), you just wrote 50,000 words! That’s not nothing! So celebrate and reward yourself for the good work you’ve done.
3. At the same time, keep “finishing” in perspective.
I can’t tell you how many first-time writers I’ve met who think their first draft is a finished book.
(Most non-writers think that’s how it works, and is probably the source of that endlessly annoying conversation that starts with something like, “Are you still working on your book?”)
But the truth is, unless you are a genius or meticulously plotted your draft from start to finish and wrote your draft in “pitch perfect authentic” form (another Corey term), this is first draft is essentially only that intuitive draft we were talking about, which means… the real work is about start.
4. Start by cataloging what you have.
One of my favorite and most beloved (if hard) steps from Rachel Aaron’s 2k to 10k book is the notion of “reverse-outlining” your draft, where you note the primary story event for each scene, along with any other key tidbits of information, like POV and word count.
The idea is to capture what happens in each scene in one brief sentence in a spreadsheet or document so you can easily see what you have, at a glance. It’s hard to grok what you’re working with in full length form, so creating a reverse outline will help you get a good overview.
Since I write in Scrivener, I like to use the synopsis area to write my brief one sentence story event summary for each scene. Then I switch over to outliner mode and export the outliner contents as a comma separated values file (CSV) and import it into my favorite spreadsheet software (Numbers for Mac) so I can work with it further there.
Recommended resource: 2K to 10K by Rachel Aaron *
5. Then, do your macro story work, either again or now.
Now it’s time to do the macro story work. Take a step back and look at the story as a whole. What kind of story are you trying to tell? What genre is it? What values are at stake? Are you meeting the conventions and obligatory scenes for your genre? Who are your characters? What are they trying to get or do? What’s your premise line?
There are many tools you can use to answer these important macro questions.
Over the last few years, I’ve become an ardent admirer of Shawn Coyne’s book The Story Grid. His take on understanding genre and how it influences audience expectations has been groundbreaking for me.
And lest you think he’s prescribing dreaded formulaic writing, take another look. The brilliance of his work is that he clearly demonstrates what an audience will need to experience in order to feel satisfied by a story — but ALSO highlights the importance, and the difficulty, of a writer innovating on those conventions and scenes.
For example, if you’ve seen it, think about the “Lovers Break Up” scene in the movie Passengers. It’s a perfect love story scene, in the sense that one character discovers a betrayal by the other. But the writer innovates on that “typical” scene in a totally unique way with incredibly high stakes (life or death).
This piece of work is about stepping back and thinking about what story you’re intending to tell and what the story needs to contain in order to work, in terms of story, plot, and character development. You can use The Story Grid and/or many of the other excellent tools available for helping you take that step back.
Recommended resources:
6. Review your desired story beats.
However you like to plot — or not, you pantser, you — now’s the time. Write out your major plot points, not necessarily based on what’s in your intuitive draft, but rather what you want them to be based on your macro story work.
I use a funny combination of plot points from working with ScreenwritingU.com, Chris Soth’s Mini Movie Method, and Cathy Yardley’s Rock Your Plot approach to identify my major overarching plot points:
- Opening
- Inciting Incident
- End of Act I, Lock In, Plot Point #1
- First Pinch Point
- Midpoint
- Second Pinch Point
- End of Act II, Cave Moment/All Is Lost, Plot Point #2
- Crisis
- Climax
- Resolution
I ALSO use Shawn Coyne’s Beginning Hook, Middle Build, and Ending Payoff method, with each of those broken down into what he calls the 5 commandments of Inciting Incident, Complication, Crisis, Climax, Resolution. Yes, this is redundant. And, it helps me cross-check and make sure I’m not only building the plot across the entire story, but within each act (and ultimately each scene as well).
7. Write out your Revision To Do list.
Using your macro map of what you want to create, compare it to what you have cataloged. Very quickly you’ll discover missing scenes and also where you’re already on the mark.
Use this process to create your Revision To Do list (another tidbit from Rachel Aaron’s 2k to 10k book) so you’re clear on the steps you’re going to take to revise.
At this stage, you’re still looking at the big stuff rather than the fine details of individual scenes.
For example, you’ll be identifying which scenes to cut, which scenes to add, what character or plot changes you’ll need to make, etc.
(Tip: Once I’m doing this work, in addition to saving a copy of my intuitive draft, I also I make a “compost” folder in Scrivener for scenes and raw material I cut so I can refer back to them easily retrieve them to pull back into my new draft. Alternatively you can use “snapshots” in Scrivener to help with this.)
8. Decide what you’ll tackle first.
Once you have your Revision To Do list, put it in order.
I recommend starting with the macro (biggest level) and then working your way down to the smaller stuff with your revision work.
If you’re restructuring the story, start there. You might begin by deleting all the scenes you don’t need any more (make a backup of the intuitive draft first) and insert placeholders for the new scenes, for example.
If you’re changing specific characters, devise a strategy for tracking and changing their development through the story.
9. Plan a timeline for your revision, if you like.
Optionally, you may want to plan a timeline for your revision.
This is usually most relevant when you a) have a deadline by which you either have to or want to finish by, and b) when you actually know what your writing pace is.
If you were tracking your time during NaNoWriMo, you probably have a sense of how much time it took you each day to hit your 1,667 word count. And if you know you have approximately, say, 20,000 additional new words to write for new scenes, based on your revision plan, you’ll know approximately how much writing time you’ll need.
On the other hand, you won’t necessarily know how long it will take you to take each revision step, so you’ll want to give yourself time and space to figure that out as you go along. Be aware that you’ll be highly likely to stumble across various “black hole” sections in your work, as one of our writing community members calls them, where you’ll end up spending many times longer than you expected, sorting them out. This is normal. :)
10. Work with the smallest chunks possible.
Now that you’ve got your Revision To Do list and your timeline, you have a plan.
But you may still have a case of the heebie-jeebies facing all that work.
The trick here is to pick out the small chunks possible to work on.
Even the macro work can be broken into smaller actions, such as backing up the first draft (I make a duplicate of my entire draft in Scrivener and label it 1.0, then label the new draft my 1.1 or 2.0 draft, depending on where I feel like I am in the process), cutting unneeded scenes from the first draft, putting in placeholders for the new scenes. Those are each small steps that can be taken, one by one.
If those are too big, make them smaller, e.g. cutting unneeded scenes from first act, or first section of the first act, for example.
The idea here is to craft your overall plan, and then forget about it while you focus on these day-to-day small steps. I call this willful blindness, and it’s a lifesaver when dealing with a major revision. Sure, check in with the bigger plan from time to time to make sure you’re on track, but in general, keep your focus on taking the smaller steps each day.
11. Get support.
Facing a rewrite can be daunting. (It’s even harder when it’s your fifth or seventh major revision.) I highly recommend getting a support system in place for yourself.
You can work one-on-one with a coach, join a critique or writer’s group, or set up a buddy system where you’re supporting a fellow writer and vice versa.
The important thing to have in place, in my opinion, is not just the practical support for staying accountable for doing the work of your writing, but also for the emotional journey. There are a lot of ups and downs and dark nights of the soul with rewriting, and you’ll not want to be alone for those. So do establish a support system for yourself.
I wish you all the best with your revising!
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