Hurry Up & Wait: Tips for RE-Vision
By Kimberley McNamara
I’m in the process of revising my novel. I’ve been in the process for a long time. When friends or family ask, what’s taking so long, I tell them it’s a like a playing a game of kick-the-can. I hesitate to say I’m done because then that means I have to kick the proverbial can and send my novel out into the world of querying to find an agent. My writing friends get it. RE-vision is hard. Hard, simply because when you revise it’s not only removing excess words or redundancies it’s also RE-visioning your novel. It is hard to kick the can.
Matt Bell, author of several novels and the famous text Refuse to Be Done, actually retypes his novel. He has a large monitor and pulls up two documents: the novel and the novel retyped. He is not simply cutting and pasting text he is rewriting as he retypes. The bare bones/the high and low points/the gist of what is on the page on one side of the monitor screen is what lands on the other side of the monitor screen. Marie-Helene Bertino also claims rewriting/retyping her novels is the way to get at the heart of it, to decide that another voice or pov would be better.
Only when you are satisfied with the RE-Vision does the revision/the removal of weasel words as Matt Bell calls them, come into play.
And then there is the read-throughs to make sure the senses are on the page: is there sound? Touch? Smell? Taste? Not only what your character sees but what they experience should be there: remember you not only hold the camera but you’re the sound technician too. And verb consistency are you writing in present, limited past tense? Do you have too many -ing verbs, too many adverbs? Are you using the verb ‘to be’ too much. This last tidbit is from Kathy Fish who teaches flash fiction..
Other RE-Vision checks to consider:
· Quirks. Did you give your character enough quirks because round characters have quirks? What makes them spin out of control? What makes them regroup?
· Characteristics—are your characters too homogenous? Then give them some props. Do they also wear glasses? Use a cane? Are they hard of hearing? Have chapped lips? Big ears? Remember people with green eyes only make up 9% of the US population and 2% of the world population yet there are so many green eyes in novels per Rebecca Makkai, who by-the-way, has truly green eyes. Pay attention. You are writing a book not a movie! Film gave us (per Makkai) the eye close up so we tend to say: his brown eyes gleamed. If you already noted his brown eyes before don’t add it in here, simply say “his eyes gleamed” or narrowed or skip his eyes altogether and notice something else about him. Makkai recommends you scan your manuscript for ‘eyes’ and remove the redundant eye color descriptor.
· Consistency: Are the attributes of your settings consistent? The names of characters (yes, this is a thing, authors change names as they write, decide on a different nickname, or surname only to find out in their final draft that the antagonist has two different surnames).
· Rhythm: How do your beats hold up? Yes, there are beats to your novel. A novel no matter the genre is always a series of Beats. Like a symphony there’s the fast build (allegro), the slow down (andante or adagio) think backstory weave-ins, the dance movement (minuet or scherzo) think playful dialogue/action while building toward the climax/the crescendo and the finale (allegro again but compressed and more rapid than the beginning) and then the denouement (coda).
RE-Vision and your plot: if everything is at a breakneck pace, the reader cannot absorb the facts and find themselves searching previous pages. You want your reader to be able to stitch pieces together as they go. Thus, the rhythm and the need to hurry-up and wait. Trust your reader to gather as they read, give them the space (the wait) to absorb and demand they understand nuance.
In this world of AI too often writers believe they must over state, point out, have dialogue that is on point (again tv’s influence) ex: police procedurals and forensics shows follow a certain format the ‘masspec’ always comes through with the much-needed piece of evidence right before the climax aka the wild chase and gunfight. But not every novel needs a gun fight with the bad guy shot. And yes, it depends on the genre as to the type of plot but genre writing shouldn’t be sloppy. Many works of genre sport round characters, backstory with hidden wounds, and character motivation.
RE-Vision is a series of hurry-up-and-waits. It is a game of kick-the-can. You are constantly attempting to kick the can but the placement of the can changes. Take your time and breathe but don’t take forever to kick the can and submit your novel.
