An Analogy of Sorts
Issue 12.2
This issue of “Do you know where YOUR story is?” is the second of three issues dealing with approaching the problem of sizeable revisions. The first issue offered some straightforward methods to help you tackle the problem. Issue 12.2 provides a more whimsical approach. For the professional’s opinion on handling developmental problems, please check out Issue 12.3. All three articles will post on the same day.
This material also appears, with a slightly different introduction, on my web site: “Finding Robin’s Story”.
So, we’ve discussed some steps to take to get to work on making big revisions.
“But, what,” you say, “if this is a really big, extensive revision with tentacles of related material all over the place? Where do I start?”
Okay, this may seem weird, but it’s the analogy that occurred to me. Bear with me.
When I houseclean, it tends to be in giant gulps. Things being in the wrong place seems to be my biggest--and to be honest, easiest to solve--problem. But the idea of sorting out the belongings of seven rooms and getting them to their rightful places is daunting. For me, the general process goes like this.
1. I start with one room, and I remove everything from it that doesn’t belong. Some items, the easy ones, I immediately put away. But others are not so easy. For those, I have to answer some questions.
a. Who do they belong to?
b. Does the owner want to keep them?
c. If not, which trash disposal method is needed (regular or recycle)?
d. If they want to keep them, where do they go?
e. Do I need to put them away myself or create a pile for the owner to deal with (usually under threat of dire punishment if they don’t)?
These items usually end up at a neutral location, waiting to be sorted as these questions are answered. Some of them I already know are my responsibility, but I also know that more items like them await me in other rooms, So I hold off putting them away until I have them all together.
2. I go to the next room and repeat.
3. As I accumulate what I believe are all the items in a category (let’s go with socks) that go to one room, I take those socks to the room where they belong and either put them away or leave them there for the owner. (Re #1.e, items like socks I might put away myself.) The items collected for someone else at the neutral location that I don’t handle remain in a pile for the owner to deal with upon notice.
4. Items that I know I’m putting away are piled until I need more sorting space, or until I am pretty sure they are all the things in that category. Or some other reason. This sounds a little capricious, but changing up how I work occasionally makes it easier.
5. At last all items have been dealt with and put away, and all that is left for me to do is to nag someone else to take care of their stuff.
Tackling any big chore is tough. And of course, we were discussing changing and sorting story segments, not socks. The processes can be similar—start with the easy stuff, where you know what to do. Make decisions about where the words belong and which characters are responsible for them. Keep putting things where they belong until you are done.
The key is to organize a large task in a fashion that suits your mental/emotional needs and then go at it.
Apply the cliches if you want:
“Rome wasn’t built in a day.”
“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
“There is only one way to eat an elephant: a bite at a time.”
And how long did it take to build the pyramids anyway? Don’t despair, revision won’t take you that long. You can conquer it, and it actually does get easier. I have even heard writers say that revision is their favorite part of writing, because the words are already there and simply need to be fixed. Good luck!
for more on dealing with large revisions, see Issue 12.1, Dealing with Major Revisions and issue 12.3, Treating Your Manuscript, by guest contributor Mackenzie Minnick