Diving in

The rains have returned and I hate to confess it, but there's a gleeful little part of me that is absolutely delighted. Beautiful days can be a writer's curse, especially in a part of the country that is wet and gloomish for a greater part of the year.

5 days ago my manuscript returned to my doorstep and as it was collected from the mailbox, I (literally) dropped everything and sat down to read the evaluation and then I went through the manuscript itself, page by page, to look at the specific comments. 2 hours later I woke up adrift in a sea of emotions and starving.

It was an experience like nothing else. I took A LOT of writing classes in college and a few post-college. I've been in writing groups before. I've been given positive and constructive feedback many, many times before.

But there's been no other project that I've poured so much time into nor invested so much heart.

I was in a place with this manuscript where I just didn't know what to do next. I knew that there was still work to be done, but I felt a little lost, unequipped to make the kinds of tough editing decisions that I knew were going to need to be made. It's the curse of character. My characters were real (and though it became clear that while Holden does shine on the page, Jezebel doesn't quite come across the way I see her). I love spending time with them...too much time and too many pages.

What's absolutely amazing, is that I now have a clear vision of what kinds of things I need to cut, what kinds of things don't really move the story along. Yesterday I was listening to the Nerdist Podcast and Chris Hardwick was talking to Tina Fey and he asked her if she'd like to do another screenplay and she said yes and then proceeded to talk about how much she's learned, especially from 30 Rock, how important story is. Tina talked about notes she got regarding the screenplay for Mean Girls from the studio and how they kept saying, "More story!" and she didn't really understand what they meant at the time.

I think I've fallen into that same problem a bit myself. SWHOT is definitely a character driven piece. You need to understand and care about what happens to these characters...but that doesn't mean I don't have to make tough decisions about scenes to cut in order to support the greater good. Story is very important. Some might argue it's the only thing worth paying attention to.

There was one aspect of the manuscript that's bothered me from the beginning of the entire writing process for SWHOT and that's Jezebel's history. I changed it completely between the first and second draft and now as I begin the third draft, I have an incredibly tough decision to make. I have a plan for how to fix the problems with her history should I decide to keep it the way it is. I have a clear vision for how it can still work and how I can integrate that into the entire manuscript.

Or I can change it.

And there's a pretty good option on the table that would work well with the characters I have and their needs and motivations and it would serve the story.

I just need to decide.

As you'll see from the photo, I've got a notepad where my plan is to break down the "pros," the what needs to stay, and the "cons," what definitely needs to go. I'm also considering rewriting the first chapter from scratch with Version A and then again with Version B. But I told myself I'd wait a full week to begin any actual writing.

During most of my downtime my brain has been storming up ideas and solutions.

This critique was exactly what I needed to see the finish line. One of the greatest reassurances from the praise and the criticism, was that the "writing is really strong." I figure as long as I have that, everything else is an easy fix.

Armed and ready