Spring Cleaning Your Novel

I don't know if there's any truth to that whole spring cleaning frenzy people seem to enter when the days turn longer and warmer (it's certainly never affected me before) but the last couple of weeks I've really felt the urge to clean house. It's not just the basic laundry and vacuuming but I'm talking clean out the van, organize clothes, eliminate unnecessary 'stuff', even cleaning out old messages on my cell phone (and I hardly ever do that!). Just an overall less is more attitude has pervaded my consciousness. I've even pulled back from the little social networking I do attempt and, instead of logging on at night, I'm reading more, being more 'present' rather than distracted by endless web-searching for useless tidbits of information that clutter your brain and trying to live more in the moment. As for my writing, even though I haven't 'quite' finished my wip (but the end is in sight people! Yes it is!) I'm already thinking about how I can 'purge' some unnecessary 'stuff' in it.

Usually, my first drafts are lean - meaning after revision I end up with a few thousand more words because I add in more description, layer in more meaning, add a scene that deepens characterization, etc. But for this wip I'm now approaching the 65,000 word mark. My goal is to hit no more than 70,000 words. With what I know I still have left to write, I may inch over that mark. I also know that there are a couple of short scenes that I need to add in as a sub-plot. I may be heading into 75,000 words at that point. This is not a huge problem but it is heading towards the upper range for contempory YA. But then my wip is a fairy-tale inspired YA so maybe I have a bit more wiggle room because it's not exactly a contemporary - but it's not exactly a fantasy either and not exactly a paranormal. Yeah. I like to make my life difficult. :) Regardless, I really do not want to make this longer than 70,000-75,000 words. So, I know will have to purge.

I know that most of the purging will be done in the first half of the book. It took me awhile to get to the end of this wip and I took a few detours along the way that either have to be trimmed or cut altogether. A couple of secondary characters didn't pan into much by the end of the book so I'll have to lesson their importance at the beginning while beefing up the presence or changing some motivations for some others. There's always the little things that add up and are an easy clean: unnecessary words like 'that' and 'seemed'. Too many dialogue tags or repetition of information. Scenes that are 'filler' - don't progress the plot or deepen characterization. Combining scenes where one can do both of these things. Like any good spring cleaning, I know things have to get messier before they get cleaner so I really hope all my moving around and throwing things out won't end up making the wip messier than it is right now. But the urge to purge is still strong in me. I have a vision of a more organized, well-put together story that hopefully will appear seamless to a reader. Like the result of any good cleaning, when you enter a room you may not notice all the details like the plumped up pillows or dust-free tables but you will sense a peacefulness - a sense of zen - that allows you to enjoy the room as a whole. A good book should be the same - don't let clutter destroy what is essentially a really good story.

So, are any of you spring cleaning your novels? Any tips you can share to help clear away the mess?

End of Vacation, Getting Organized and Throwing out Old Novels

Yup. That's it, folks. We're done. School starts tomorrow for the kidlets and I'm back at work after two weeks away. It feels like ages so I guess I must have had a long enough break.

Why is it that when the school season begins I feel like I need to get organized? I spent my last day of vacation cleaning out the laundry room for pity's sake! But there's something quite fulfilling about bundling up junk that's been stuffed into cupboards and thrown haphazardly into corners and sending it to the trash or, if it's something still useful but not for us anymore, to the Goodwill. Maybe it's because I know that with the schedule from hell about to descend I won't have a long stretch of time where I can devote to that kind of project. Thank God I've learned to write in snatches of time because otherwise I'd never have finished a book.

One of the cool things about cleaning up is you get to see stuff that you've kept that you've forgotten about - most of it sentimental. Old baby plates and first utensils, childhood sweaters, old school papers and, in a writers case, the books that will never be published.

You know the ones. Those first efforts you once thought so brilliant but now, years later as you re-read them the strongest feeling you have is an overwhelming urge to cringe. Still, you see the flashes of the writer you now are. The voice that has become yours. And while you know you should probably trash the pages (and the contest entries, course exercises and critique remarks that helped you become a better writer) you just can't bring yourself to do it. It's a piece of your own personal history and while you know it will never see the publishing light of day, you also know that every once in a while, when you clean up and you think "What's in that box over there" you will flash back to when you started writing and you thought every word spilling out of you just might be brilliant, just might one day, be published. And the disappointment when you realized you're not good enough. Not yet. Maybe not ever.

So even though these pages haven't been published and you know that they're taking up space you don't have, you just can't get rid of them. You know they're still important enought to keep. They are evidence of how far you've come and how persistent you've been. They are the beginning. And we all know how important beginnings are.

So, while I cleaned up a lot there were a few things I did keep. One box in particular. Really, it doesn't take up that much space...

September Starts and Line Edits Begin

Well they arrived - September and my line edits that is. I can't believe they're both here!

September is one of those months that just gets crammed full of stuff really quickly. But this year seems busier than most. Not only is it the Boy's birthday on Friday (with subsequent birthday party on the 12th) the pre-season hockey craziness has started with practices, exhibition games and a tournament all before the middle of the month. Don't even get me started on the back to school shopping and the doctor and dentist visits. I'm still on vacation this week so a lot of that stuff is being taken care of over the next few days but when school actually starts next week and I'm back to work that's when the busy schedule really kicks in. God forbid I don't look at my calendar for the week and forget about picking some kid up from somewhere or getting groceries in the one and a half hour of free time I might have on a Sunday.

So you'd think I'd be more stressed out about doing my line edits that arrived on Monday. Nope. I'm actually enjoying them. Hey, maybe that vow to be more optimistic is working! I'm looking on it as my opportunity to deal with some little bits and pieces of clean up now so I don't have to obsess over some silly, stupid error. Little things do matter and now that the larger story as a whole is pretty solidified we're getting to the little things. And it sure doesn't hurt that my editor has made it really easy for me either. Basically she suggests a small correction or change which is highlighted in the text and if I agree I accept the change and take out the highlight. If I have an alternate suggestion I write it in and highlight that in a different colour. Mostly I accept the changes (because my editor is just plain right most of the time) so that makes things way easier than if I was hunting and pecking through my words without her map already in place.

Going through revisions and line edits is very much like having to clean up a messy house. You feel overwhelmed at the thought of doing the revisions at first (the heavy duty mopping, vacuuming, dusting, putting things away) but you know you have to do that so you can get to the final touches of the clean up (the line edits): polishing that side table, straigtening those pillows, lighting a scented candle to make the whole house smell wonderful. I hate cleaning and don't know why I used that analogy but I do know that when my house is clean and straightened up I feel way better. And I know when I'm done with these edits I'll feel the same way about the book.

Return from Vacation = Towering Pile of Laundry

Spent a lovely week at the cottage (fewer bugs this time and better weather). Lots of hours sitting idling by the water or lazing in the hammock. Read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon (first book of his I'd read and I'm definitely getting everything else he's written now!). I even did some revisions to the first half of the wip - go me. Of course the biggest revisions are to happen in the second half and I'm avoiding that. Just like I'm avoiding the towering pile of laundry currently sitting on the laundry room floor.

Which leads me to my profound blog question of the day:

Do dirty vacation clothes actually multiply when you get home?

Because I swear that I came back with way more clothes and linens than I took. And second question: why do clean socks disappear while dirty socks multiply? How is this fair, huh?

So, while I ostensibly still have one more week of vacation left, it will be spent chained to my washer/dryer feeding it the monster volume of clothes that has, in the last hour, grown in size to something now resembling Mount Aetna.

If there isn't a blog post by next Tuesday you'll know the mountain erupted.