Writing and revising a novel can be a great love affair. There's the wonderful first meeting when everything is full of sparks and shine and promise. There are the side long glances and the fear of being hurt and being taken advantage of. Will you put all this time and effort into a relationship that will ultimately fail? Will you lose a part of yourself in the process? There's the honeymoon period, the first fight, the first time you make up. There's the "break" and reassessing the relationship and... what will you decide?
When I first started revising Family Trust I decided that this was going to be the novel that I finished. Really finished. The one that I got to a submission standard. The point was to go through the process of a complete revision, of beta readers, of polishing and to get out the other side alive. The point was to spend the time, to grow from the experience and to learn that I could do it. I haven't quite done it yet but along the way I've already learned how important it is to keep falling in love with your story over and over again. To keep rediscovering that sparkly, shiny feeling that made you fall in love in the first place. Through the first fight, the arguments and several "breaks" I've stuck with it.
Recalling The Spark
Every story starts with a spark. It's that first flash of inspiration. It could be a concept, a character, some dialogue, an object, a setting, a what if. It could be anything but that anything is pure gold. That spark is what drew you to the story, what motivated you to begin writing and it's so important that you have to keep it in your story. Ideas evolve but you have to keep that spark glowing. It might evolve into a character's bad habit or it might be the only line of dialogue that survives to the second draft but that spark will be there to keep relighting the story fire.
Finding The Guiding Light
When you have pages and pages of manuscript bloodied with red pen it's important to be able to gain perspective. You need a guiding light, a torch to show you the way, to give you focus and hope. That torch is The Sentence, a summary of the key ingredients of your story in one concise sentence full of descriptive words that should make you feel that writing buzz. I learnt the Sentence from Think Sideways and relearnt it in How To Revise Your Novel and I'm finding new uses for it all the time, this being the latest. The Sentence must have a protagonist, antagonist, setting, conflict and twist. The protagonist and antagonist should be described with an adjective and a noun. Setting is self explanatory and should only be specifically described if it is an integral part of the story and isn't otherwise implied by your description of the other elements. The conflict is what's stopping the protagonist from reaching their goal and the twist is the thing that changes in the story, usually to allow the protagonist to reach their goal.
Remember The Good Times
This is most important after one of those "breaks". The story you remember having written is not usually the same as the story you have actually written. Your memories are tainted by the bad times which always seem to stick in our minds more easily than the good times. The important thing here is to give your story another chance. Honour the time that you've had together and put some time towards trying to rekindle this broken romance. Sit down with your story as you would a good book (after reminding yourself of the spark and with your trusty torch in hand) and read. If you've stayed true to the story you wanted to tell, the story you were inspired and excited to tell then it will show. The words you have written will begin to glow and soon things will be on fire again. And if not... you might be able to see the problems you need to fix or it might have given you the perspective to see it's just not going to work out and you probably won't stay friends.
