The Solitude, part 6

Yes, there's good news and some bad news. As always. The good news is that life is returning to the normal we consider normal in our daily lives. The bad news is that it's not happening everywhere and it's not quite the same for everyone. For that matter, some people don't want that same kind of same. But that is a whole other blog post. When life becomes unfathomable, I dive into a good book and swim about at my leisure.

For writers there's always a good news / bad news dichotomy, too. Oh my God! I finished! I finally finished this thing! (Good news.) But now I have to revise, and edit, and proofread.... (Bad news.) After writing several novels I've developed a process which seems to fit my lifestyle and my inane sense of story, which I use to guide me through The Process. Having just launched my latest novel, a crime drama, I can easily look back and see how I went through the process of writing the book.

First, we have to finish the manuscript. And there's no better way than having a climax. That, too, has a good news, bad news convention. If all has gone well thus far, we are at the top of that dramatic arc and ready to pull the trigger on that gun we mentioned in the first act lay upon the mantlepiece. If we have set up this moment effectively, it's a crowning achievement we can smile about for a long time. That's good news. If we have wandered about, we may still stumble upon the idea that it's about time to do something else...which would be the bad news. Ultimately, we should have planned this sooner, at least by the two-thirds mark in the story - if we even know where that is when we are at the starting point.

Note: Almost a year ago, while driving around the country, I figured out my own writing process and made it into a lecture, something I might share with young writers, my students, and anyone who asks.

Part 6

I have an innate sense of pacing when writing a novel. I keep everything in my head with very few notes, seldom more than a few Post-Its. Other writers I know create an elaborate outline with every detail in its place, but that's not for me. I write, as they say, "by the seat of my pants".  (See previous post for apologies and explanations.) So as I arrive at the two-thirds point in a book, I must survey all my subplots and see how to resolve them (if I hadn't known previously, and I often don't). As I look at my shelf of books, I know I have usually resolved the subplots just before the main plot ends.

Here is where pacing is so important. The chapters tend to get shorter, the descriptions briefer, as action takes over the story. The pace quickens. Chases, fights, desperation time. However, even as the reader feels the quickening pace, I slow down writing it. I often go to slow-mo. I think like a movie camera and a film director. I choreograph action scenes in my head, then try to describe the action. One minute of action in the manuscript may take two days to write and fourteen days to rewrite.

When I get to the climax of the book, the big scene where all is revealed to reader and protagonist, I like to gently hammer home the theme. Not in a preachy manner but still clear enough it is not missed. The theme is not a message; it is a stylistic mantra that has been woven through the foundation of the story. Theme can often be stated in a single word; I seem to write a lot about Redemption and use that as the theme in so many of my stories: people going through hell to find themselves or their passion or their reason for being or why the dragons exist at all. My protagonist carries that theme in his/her final decisions and actions. A lot depends on whether the protagonist will survive or not - which would be a spoiler. (In only two of my novels does the protagonist not make it out alive.)

I know when I've arrived at the end. I've been feeling the downhill momentum for several scenes - despite the rising dramatic arc, ironically. Some stories will have the great confrontation between protagonist and antagonist: a swordfight or a fistfight or a well-stated argument that crushes a soul or the revelation of who he/she really is! The last scene is hard to write - hard to get it right, to make it perfect. The final few lines are important. It has to end with the perfect description, line of dialog, thought or feeling. I work on the last page a lot. And by last, I do not mean the exact final page. because there is always the denouement (my favorite French word after croissant), the "wrapping up". For a TV show, it's the two minute scene following the last commercial break, a summarizing of what has transpired and perhaps, if a sequel is on the horizon, a glimpse of what may come.

Then I go back to the beginning and read through the whole manuscript. I edit as I go, of course, but I do not yet enter the revision stage. Eventually, I know I must accept the bad news and force myself to switch hats from writer to editor. I often feel silly with the different hats, but they do keep my hair from blowing into a mess, and for that I am grateful.

NEXT: The actual revision tips. 

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