Revising “From the Ashes of Courage”

Revising a novel can be an exciting and trying process. Exciting, because you get to see a story you’ve been working on for weeks (or longer) finally taking final form. Revision is also when you finalize the themes in your story, because the characters’ story arcs have reached their final form, and you get to see them told through the story. In my case, I started with a hot list of issues I needed to address throughout the manuscript. But as I began reading, I saw that I had already been addressing them, even from the first chapters.

Revising can be a trying process, though, too, because you run across chapters or scenes that… well, they suck. And even though this is your baby, even though you’ve poured your soul into it, though you may even identify with it, you must be brutal. If whole sections of it drone on, you have to get rid of them. If an inspired scene doesn’t fit into the final story, you have to get rid of it. Be merciless.

Above is a scan on one of the less than stellar first-draft pages. (Click it to make it bigger.) As you can see, I’ve crossed most of it out. And of what’s left, I’m not too thrilled. This scene does have some conflict in it, so it can rock. But I have to get rid of anything that I can, and abbreviate the rest until it’s almost not there.

But overall, I’m very happy with the way this novel is turning out. Sometimes, reading this, I feel like I’m the best writer on the planet.

Okay… Coming back down to earth now.

-TimK

P.S. I have a humorous piece queued up for Friday about revising a novel. Stay tuned.