Sunday 24 January 2016

Editing With Sue McDonagh
In week two of my series on editing, I am very pleased to welcome another writing friend, Sue McDonagh, to the blog. I met Sue when we turned up at a new writers' circle called WriteGroup! in Cowbridge. We hit it off straightaway; we were both attempting to write a novel and we were going to try NaNoWriMo for the first time. That November in 2014, we became NaNo buddies and encouraged each other to keep going and achieve the target of writing 50,000 words+ in a month. On January 1st 2016, we achieved another first. We've both been fortunate in gaining a place on the New Writers' Scheme and we are both editing a novel for the first time.

Please tell us about this first experience of editing a novel, Sue.
Although I’ve spent my life ‘writing about things’, this is my first attempt at a full length novel. It’s in the romantic, chick-lit genre, light-hearted yet thought-provoking in turn.

After incubating the idea for a novel for a couple of years without the faintest idea how to start it, I discovered NanoWriMo, in which one commits to writing 50,000 words in a month. Fifty thousand words! I couldn’t imagine writing that much. No-one was more surprised than me when I achieved that target - and carried on writing, every single night.
            
Yes, this is Sue!
The novel grew and grew and reached 60,000 words at which point my writing friend, Jan Baynham, offered to read it for me. I’d felt quite proud of it until the moment I e-mailed it over. Overnight, the scales dropped from my eyes and I lay awake thinking how truly amateurish it was, and how much better it could be. I sent a message saying: "Please don’t read it! It’s terrible! I can do better!” Jan, bless her, said she’d actually rather enjoyed what she’d read, but I’d already re-read my humble offerings as if I was using someone else's eyes. My heroine irritated me, and I’d gone off the story-line.

I guess that was my very first experience of editing.  In my other life, I’m an artist, and I’m familiar with the idea that’s it’s sometimes necessary to destroy your art in order to create something better. It can be a scary process, and not for the faint-hearted. Every time I do it, I learn. Occasionally I learn that I should have left it alone in the first place - but more often than not, I surprise myself and feel that artistically, I’ve moved on. With that in mind, I re-wrote almost all of those 60,000 words and liked it a whole lot better. I worked on the character bibles for my cast, and I read everything I could lay my hands on about arcs and three act scenes and creating tensions and conflicts and dramas.
            
Two friends were ‘beta-reading’ my Work in Progress as fast as I wrote it. I felt like Scheherezade, passing my chapters into their eager hands on a daily basis. They were short chapters. More on that later.

Then I went into hospital for a hip replacement. My brain turned to mush after the General Anaesthetic, so it was a few weeks before I looked at my novel again.  When I did, I was horrified. I e-mailed one of my two friends.
            “I must congratulate you on your tenacity in reading this tripe,” I said. 
I could hardly credit my own arrogance in sharing it publicly - who did I think I was?
She replied, “It’s really not that bad,  But maybe you could…” and she sent a short list of encouraging and honest points which had me reaching for my laptop and opening a fresh document. Once again, I reviewed and re-wrote, and the novel thundered towards its conclusion.  With the end in sight, I wrote more and more slowly, tying up loose ends, trying to maintain the tension I’d created, explaining by showing and not telling - and then I stalled. 

I realised that I had a beginning, and an end, and not so much the notorious soggy middle, as hardly any middle at all. If you drew my story line as a graph, it would look like the sort of mountain a child draws. Like a cone. Up one side and down the other.  And somehow, not only did all the stuff I was trying to cram into the end need to go into the middle, it was also incoherent and muddled. A major re-write was called for. Far from feeling depressed that I had to carve up my novel, I felt quite excited and set to work.  This time I read everything aloud, which helped me to recognise where I’d gone wrong. Hours and hours of jiggling documents around and saving eternally to DropBox - then worrying that I’d saved over a chapter and lost it - and finally, I got to the denouement.  It was very exciting.

I’ve finished, I thought, as I typed, 'The End'. I began to tidy it up with a view to submitting it to publishers and agents.  They need the first three chapters, I discovered.  My chapters were skimpy, insubstantial things. More like scenes, really.  So they had to be re-assembled.  It was beginning to look, I hoped, like a proper book at last. But it was still not, quite, right…

It was 103,300 words, this manuscript.  It needed to go on a Word Diet.  I combed out flabby phrasing, and typos, and lost 800 words with reasonable ease. So that’s the grammatical errors attended to - now the editing is harsher, and closer to my heart. I’m beginning to understand the phrase ‘kill your darlings’. I’ve removed lines where I thought I was being funny - and now realise they’re misplaced humour - put in the mouth of the wrong recipient.
I’m keeping a ‘cuttings’ file, where all these sad cast-offs live, and maybe they will see the light in some-thing else, who knows.
            
Several people now have read my WiP in its entirety; half read it within days and told me it was gripping and they couldn’t put it down.  I couldn’t ask for better feedback! I was delighted…until I squeezed feedback out of the quiet ones, who told me: “Too much technical stuff” and “I don’t see what was wrong with their relationship” etc, sending me back to the drawing board. I’ve fixed the second observation - but I’m not sure what to do about the first one, and I think I’m running the risk of hacking it up and spoiling it.  It’s still too wordy by at least two thousand words, but it needs a lighter touch now than my swingeing cursor. Too easy to highlight entire paragraphs and press ‘Delete’!
My next step is to send it for assessment to the RNA.  I’m sure there will be a further set of observations to attend to.

Shall I meet you here for the next editing session? Mine’s a black coffee.  Oh, and Victoria Sponge please, if you’re buying…

A very big thank you for sharing the ups and downs of your first experience of editing in such an honest way, Sue. I can certainly relate to the feeling that my writing is amateurish and I've had many crises of confidence. You're a lot further along with the editing than me and I haven't got as far as getting feedback from Beta readers yet. I think that the coffee and cake session can be arranged, though!

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Thank you for reading. Can you relate to any of Sue's experiences when you edited your first novel? Did you use story arcs to help you see where there needed to be major structural changes? Please share your experiences with us. Thanks!

You may also follow me on Twitter @JanBayLit and on my Jan Baynham Writer Facebook page.

16 comments:

  1. What a lovely post, Sue. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I recognised so many of the things you experienced, and I'm sure other writers will say the same. I love the expression 'Word Diet' - oh, how I can relate to that! Congratulations on being accepted onto the NWS. I'm sure the feedback you receive will be insightful and supportive. Jan - thanks for this series. So interesting and helpful.

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    1. I'm glad you're enjoying the series, Sue. I'm certainly enjoying reading what other writers have to say on the subject and learning so much, too. My novel definitely needs to go on a 'Word Diet', as well!

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    2. Thank you for your comments. 🙂

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    3. Thankyou Susanna, I'm pleased you enjoyed the article. I'm STILL hacking away at this manuscript - it seems to be getting longer instead of shorter though :O
      Do they publish romantic blockbusters as a debut novel?? hehehe x

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  2. I save the bits I cut too. It's easier to take them out if I know I could put them back if I change my mind or could possibly use them in someyhing else.

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    1. I can see the value of that, Patsy. I think I shall start a file of bits now. I haven't started cutting anything yet but I know I shall have to. Thank you for commenting.

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    2. My cuttings file is the size of a novella now. There are discarded whole chapters and plot ideas in there that I could turn into another story. I don't think anything is ever wasted :) x

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  3. My novel ideas are more on the anorexic side than needing a word diet, Jan. I'm more used to writing articles where we have to keep it brief and only put in the neccessry bits. I have my characters drinking too much tea but that's only a copy of what I do, speaking of which, I'm off to put the kettle on:))

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    1. That's not a bad thing, Sue. I tend to use ten words where one would do and I know that getting rid of unnecessary words will be high on the agenda when I come to the pruning stage. Enjoy your cuppa! 🙂

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    2. Thanks for popping by to leave a comment. 🙂

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  4. Another great editing post, thanks Jan and Sue! Always interesting to find out how other authors tackle this process :)

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    1. Thanks, Samantha. Yes, everyone tackles editing in their own way. Fascinating and good for picking up tips, too. Thank you for your comments.

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  5. Oh how I know those feelings well. I think we all go through that and it takes strength and tenacity to get over the nerves and self-doubt. BUT you can do it Sue!!! I'm absolutely lovely the motorbike! I did try it once... errr... I did try it once :):) Let's just say I'm better off with 4 wheels but I do enjoy riding pillion on the back of my hubby's bike. Thanks for hosting Sue, Jan. Wish you both much success with the RNA writing scheme. It'll be lots of fun, I'm sure. Have a great week.

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    1. The motorbike picture is great, isn't it, Nicola? I've ridden pillion many, many moons ago but never on my own. Thanks for your good wishes and for dropping by to leave a comment.

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  6. Really interesting post, Jan. So good to hear of your experiences, Sue. I am worried that when I read my manuscript back in one sitting, I will say to myself, 'What the hell? Did I really think someone would want to read this?' Scary thought. That thought, not the manuscript, I shall stick in a drawer and leave well alone.So glad you're persevering!

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    1. Thank you. I think we all have self doubts. I know I do. Your advice to put the thoughts into a drawer and leave well alone is good, I think. Thank you for commenting.

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