Image ID: Sunrise. The tops of the trees in the foreground are dark, and the gray-violet clouds in the sky seem to be burning with golden-pink hues.
Read Editing is Fun! on WordPress!
Or here, under the cut. ;)
I love the process of editing my novels. Do you?
Editing a novel is one of the best experiences in the world. For a lot of reasons, but today I want to talk about just one, that I’ve had with Specters and am now having with Black Wings.
It’s learning about the world and the characters you’re creating for your story.
I’ve once heard a comparison, that telling a story is like entering a dark cave with just a small flashlight. You shine it here and see rubble on the floor. You shine it there and see stalactites hanging from the ceiling. You hear water trickling somewhere, but you’re not sure where it’s coming from. You usually remember what you saw, but sometimes you forget, and then you rediscover it from a different angle, when you’re deeper within the cave. Some spots, magically, remain lighted even when you turn your flashlight elsewhere (writing is magic after all). You leave the cave and then you enter it again and again and again, until it’s all filled with light, and you can see it in all its glorious beauty. There’s so much in it you never expected, you never imagined. And it’s… amazing.
When you write your first draft, you can only see that narrow path you’re walking, but in time, with each new visit, you discover more.
When I approach a new story, there’s so much I don’t know about it. And as a result, neither do my characters. So, the story is full of *Mystery* and *Nobody Knows* and similar concepts. The basic idea for Specters was that there’s this *Mysterious* force out there—titular Specters themselves—and that one Professor Francis tried to find out what it was, but he and his… Students? Disciples? (I still don’t know how to call them) disappeared. *Mysteriously*.
It was kind of silly, you know, to have my main characters repeat time and again, that “they don’t know, and nobody knows, what’s happening.” But then, I spent countless hours, days, years now, figuring it out. Writing that worldbuilding file. Changing paragraphs and making notations. I went from Professor Francis being a religious believer, to him being a firm scientist. From Zane Lee—and because of that, also his daughter, Emma Lee, one of the MCs—being hesitant between religious explanations and scientific ones, to standing firm on the science side of things, but for reasons different than Professor Francis.
I went from not knowing what’s what, to having multiple theories, that multiple characters believe, and try to pursue various individual avenues of discovery. But. Only I know which theory of what the Specters actually are, and how they fit in with the rest of the world, is right. I will not tell you. You will have to read it in the book (when It’s finally finished *sigh*)
With Black Wings, it’s a different aspect of the story, that has me so excited right now. It’s Zoe Irene’s role in the large-scale events of the book.
At first, I only had one solution to the Big Problem the characters will face. Mattan Nuada’s solution. I knew that Zoe and her group were going to do something, that would put Mattan‘s plans at risk, I knew what it was, but it was more of a spur-of-the-moment action, not thought out and silly. Also. Zoe didn‘t know about it at first. It was the idea of one of her friends and he kept it *Secret* from her.
Well. Now she knows. Now, she’s instrumental in creating the whole plan. The plan is different too (no, I will not say what it is, you’ll have to read about it ), and it’s solid, it’s thought out and it represents the ideals and priorities of Zoe and her friends, which are different, than the ideals and priorities of Mattan Nuada. By the way, Mattan’s ideals and priorities are not necessarily as right and pure as it might have seem in that first version of the events.
Because of that change, Zoe became a much more proactive character. A leader, in fact. She’s not the undecided girl, whom everyone treats like a silly woman anymore (she was never supposed to be, but that’s how she was coming across). No. She is the one who’s in charge, eventually. She’s the one who comes up with the ultimate solution and… Well, she does not save the day herself. But she organizes everyone and decides who will save the day, and through that, she makes a great personal sacrifice.
None of it existed in the first draft, you know. And let me tell you, it is so exciting to discover those things, to shape the story, to sculpt it, carve it out of the shapeless heap of trash that first draft is. It’s incredible and there’s very little in this world that can compare to that feeling.
