#wipvii

[squarebracket-trickster]

To be honest, I think the worst part about writing a novel (for me) is that I absolutely have to half-ass it if I want to make any progress at all.

Because the way my process works, there is no point in spending hours editing a scene if, by the time I get to the end of the draft, I realize it is not actually needed for the plot. And I can spend weeks just making the first line pop but how much can I really say with it if I do not know the themes of my own story yet, or know what I need to foreshadow?

Why put it all that work at the beginning and scrap most of it when it would be more efficient to word-vomit something atrocious now and slowly chip away at it like a sculptor revealing a veinous hand in the marble, putting in the effort once I know where effort is actually needed?

At the same time, as a chronic perfectionist, half-assing something is terrifying because I start to fear it might actually be my best work, or that I am "losing it" and out of practice.

Eventually that half-assing will turn into a full-ass, because with each draft I will add back a little more of what I let go of last draft; but GOD is it hard to read something of yours that is riddled with mistakes you can see from a mile away, and that you know how to fix... and just move on without touching them.

You really do just have to trust that your future self has the same standards as you and will put in the effort you are putting off when the time is right; and if the problem is beyond her skill to fix she will research the shit out of it, ask for help, and try until it works. She won't settle for anything less than perfect (or at least, I cannot think of anything that would make this better so it might as well be done), but she can't get there until you do.

[squarebracket-trickster]

Since we're talking about second drafts -

"When you get to your second draft do yourself a favour and rewrite it completely. Trust me. You'll hate me now but you'll be thanking me later. Rewrite it. Don't even look at your first draft. If it's important it will stick."

I really tried to follow this advice. It didn't work for me.

By the time I started my second draft (a year after finishing draft 1) I had forgotten so much about the story that if I didn't look at my first draft wouldn't be starting with a draft, I'd be back in the planning/outlining stage.

Staring at a blank document trying to come up with the right words all over again was unnecessary stress and a waste of time. I was happy enough with my first draft. Why fix what ain't broke?

My getting-words-on-the-page process is messy. I word vomit, I ramble, I overwrite. I don't add description unless it's important to the plot. I don't edit unless my writing would be completely incomprehensible to future me otherwise. I type as fast as I can. If I started over I'd have a second draft of the exact same shit quality as my first. Maybe the pacing would be a little better. Maybe there would be less inconsistency. But there's no guarantee of that. How much would I really have to show for all that effort?

Going into my second draft with specific goals for revision is what worked in the end. I wanted to: trim my word count by 32 000 words, fix the plot holes, fix macro pacing issues like scenes where nothing interesting happens, change the ending, and make sure things are properly foreshadowed.

That I could do. It broke it down, made it far less overwhelming than "rewrite everything" and it saved me time. I'm on my third draft now, more than two years after I started my first. My writing has grown a lot in that time but I still stand by my decision not to rewrite. The story didn't need it. I don't see any decisions I could have made different on a rewrite that would have made my story so much better than what I have now.

So find what works for you. If rewriting works all the power to you! But don't feel like you are limiting yourself by not doing it. Rewriting won't magically improve your writing. Any revision needs to be done with intention.

This is your permission to not rewrite. Especially if it's making you avoid touching your draft all together.

[squarebracket-trickster]

Here's a little snippet from WIPVII (my baby) for you all, in celebration of me finally figuring out how to get this one line of dialogue to land how I want it to.

It's been like 3.5 drafts (like full manuscript drafts), okay. I think this deserves a lil' merriment.

--

For context: the POV character is Princess Isolda (Isolde) de Angenet in disguise. The man she is speaking to thinks she is a servant boy from Princess Isolde's ship.

“You would betray your princess—” “Yes, she’s a bitch—” A flail of wings and the startled cry of a songbird swallow the coda, and the man and I watch together a depression in the [tent] ceiling fumble a path from centre to edge. At last, the poor bird finds its bearings and flies off. The man’s gaze returns with a furrowed brow upon me, and I find my mouth has yet to close from speaking—the words left me rather more passionately than I had intended. Speaker and subject of insult alike shuts her lips, and I swallow back both my pride and whatever I was going to say next. The excuse will have to do as is because I am not suffering this slip of the tongue any further. The slightest shake of his head banishes whatever thought had creased the man’s brow. “What is it you desire?” he asks me. Our eyes lock, and his are softer now than I have yet seen them. Merficully, it seems he has deemed my excuse unworthy of any further suspicion—at least for the time being. What he thinks of me, why my judgement of Isolda de Angenet matters to him so much, I can only guess at. I’ve insulted myself; I’m not sure what his problem is. “Shoes,” I say and wiggle a wet sock at him. “And food, and a place to rest. I am willing to work for it. I can sew”—Shoot.. is sewing my only useful skill?—"and stuff..."

— WIPVII, draft III (the comments; technically, draft 3.5)

Square musings below the cut<3

Shout out, pathetic fallacy, you really came in for the clutch!

Dialogue tags failed me... Turns out, when you cut off a line of dialogue with an em-dash, and then follow it immediately with a dialogue tag saying, "I blurted without thinking, then cut myself off," it ruins the effect of the em-dash abruptly cutting off the dialogue. Who'd'da thunk?

Still, the em-dash wasn't conveying enough information on it's own; thus, the question that ate away at me for 3.5 drafts: how, precisely, to convey the delivery of this line of dialogue without using a dialogue tag.

Action beats failed me too, alas. The scene was already too body language heavy, and there were a very limited number of actions I could have had this character do (that would actually convey what she was thinking) that wouldn't be out of character for a person in disguise who is supposedly good at maintaining a poker face.

Hence, it was about time the setting pulled it's weight around, and my poor, ripped-at hair is ever grateful.

[squarebracket-trickster]

Ever since I've started paying attention to how published authors use punctuation, I have stopped caring about sentence fragments, or overusing commas, semicolons, and em-dashes.

You gotta let your sentences flow naturally. Sometimes that means not using three em-dashes in a paragraph because it is distracting. Sometimes that means using three semicolons in a single sentence (*cough* Frank Herbert).

Maybe the rule is, don't use fancy punctuation/fragments if following grammar rules and conventions will do, but sometimes your sentence just sounds better with six commas, an em-dash, and no verbs.

[squarebracket-trickster]

Happy *Afternoon of September 15th* to WIPVII fans (me; for no other eyes hath yet been laid upon this manuscript in full)!!

On this day in WIPVII, Isolde de Angenet stabs three men, jumps off a boat, and, just generally, has the worst plan anyone has ever had, that has no business working; and thus chapter 1 and the plot of WIPVII commence!

[squarebracket-trickster]

You know, writing novels really skews your perception of how many words is a lot.

I'm staring at my third draft, 26 559 words, and I'm thinking, wow that's so few words. I cut more words from my first draft than I have written for my third so far.

I'll be writing an essay for uni like, 1000 words? That's it???

And I have to be careful because, no, 26 500 is A LOT of words. It's nearly 50 pages of printer paper.

The very first time I tried to write a novel I got about 28 000 words in before I got permanently stuck. When I told people their reaction was generally, "28 000 is still a lot of words though. Wow."

And now, I am nearly 28 000 words in again... but to a third draft. 215 180 words into this project. And I'm not stuck this time.

[squarebracket-trickster]

I can definitively say, between now and 2021, I have improve markedly in my ability to start a new paragraph when the topic changes.

[squarebracket-trickster]

I am working on a take-home midterm right now. Which means, of course, that, all of a sudden, I really, really badly, want to write WIPVII.

In fact, I so badly DO NOT want to be working on this midterm that rereading my FIRST DRAFT of WIPVII---I cannot emphasize this enough---my FIRST, 1st, DRAFT... DRAFT ONE, the trash-heap word-vomit don't edit as you go typo-laiden dumpster-fire cringe fest [square bracket ridden] extraordinaire I promised myself I'd never have to lay eyes upon again... suddenly seems like a fantastic use of my time...

So, anyway, please enjoy these comments I (2022 me) left myself (2021 me) in the margins of said first draft:

Ma’am, this is rowboat. What distance?

The rowboat grunts??

Ah yes, the feared pirate is shaking.

With the amount of prayer [Isolde] seems to do, I might want to invent a religion.

(to the tune of despacito) EX. PO. sition!!

Holy shit this goes on forever. TRIM.

Why? Afraid he’ll figure her out, or other things;) ?

Is he surprised though? You two aren’t really that subtle.

*deranged cackling*

Wait, [Henry]—[Philip], the fucking Crown Prince of [Dian]—is going to let [Aldis] down dress him like this IN FRONT OF HIS TROOPS IN THE MIDDLE OF BATTLE??

Umm, I feel the man might have a bit more of a reaction to [...] the fact that [Henry] IS A SPY IN THE KING’S SERVICE than this.

No, okay so that comment waaaayyyyy earlier where I'm like, [Aldis] probably shouldn't mention she's running away from a marriage; she doesn't need to [be]cause being [Isolde]'s lady is cover enough -- Scratch that. It's funnier if she mentions it.