Welcoming Guest Blogger... Jennie Adams...

Sherry and I are thrilled to have a guest blogger today, Jennie Adams, sharing her revision and refocus techniques. We hang upside down with Jennie at eHarlequin's Bat Cave-- a social thread where numerous authors (both published an unpublished) hang out together.

Now, Sherry's very excited about this process and has even purchased the necessary stationery. Unfortunately, she forgot to buy ink for her printer. I'd twit her about this, but I've also run out of printer ink and keep forgetting to buy more when I'm at the store.

I will admit, the panster in me read through these fantastic suggestions and has been curled up and whimpering ever since. It's a doable process, even for a panster. And as soon as I remember to purchase ink, I'm going to give it try myself. After all, it's all about bettering yourself as an author in order to achieve your goals, and in order to do that-- you need to be teachable. (Yes, I'll have a large supply of medicinal and recreational chocolate on hand when I give this a shot.) I'm very interested to see what I'll learn about my writing process when I use this technique.

Without further ado... Heeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrre's Jennie!

Hi,

I’m Harlequin Romance author Jennie Adams and I’d like to say a big thanks to Sherry and Laura for the invitation to be a guest poster on their blog. Sherry recently said ‘I don’t think any two books of mine have been created in exactly the same way.’ I can say the same, and add this: I don’t think any two books of mine have been revised or refocussed in the same way.

So here it is – my latest revision and refocus technique:

The Big Breakdown – Of Your Story, That Is

Once upon a time (that’s not the opening line of my story in progress, by the way).

Once upon a time I plotted a story, wrote it scene by scene in a tidy and orderly fashion, polished the end result, and with what I refer to as ‘strengthening’ revisions, the sort that improve on what is already there, I sold my first Harlequin Romance book.

The progress of a story from beginning idea to end product doesn’t always happen like this. Sometimes it’s messy, hair-raising, difficult, confusing, even downright insanity inducing. Actually, that’s usually how it is for me. And that’s where The Breakdown comes into play.

If an editor sends a three page revision letter suggesting changes to eight major elements, three medium ones and including a question about the dog, chances are you’re going to have your work cut out to manage those revisions. You may need a method a little more detailed than thinking through the suggested changes, opening your manuscript document, and starting somewhere with the hopes it will all pull together as you work.

If you are simply writing and you get two thirds of the way through your story and realise that, despite all your best efforts, you don’t have enough of a grip on things or you think some of the elements aren’t working or might need to be toned down or spruced up this method might also be helpful.

Here’s how it goes:

The Big Breakdown.

I first did this for revisions of ‘To Love and To Cherish’, my March 08 Harlequin Romance release. And because I’d seen some other authors talking about storyboarding and liked the idea of a corkboard and coloured index cards (I’m a stationery addict) I decided to do it thusly:

Story Elements:

These will have variations depending on what kind of story you write. Mine are short category romances of 50 000 – 55 000 words with the focus on the developing romance between the two key characters. But you might have subplots that support your main plot, or that run parallel to it, or a sub-genre element such as mystery, paranormal, suspense. Whatever those elements are, include each one in your break up. Here’s how mine looks:

~Story progress – what’s actually happening in action in each scene (Green).

~Heroine’s internal conflict – what’s stopping her from acting on her attraction to the hero (Yellow).

~Hero’s internal conflict – what’s stopping him from acting on his attraction to the heroine (Orange).

~Heroine’s romantic development – (Pink).

~Hero’s romantic development – (Blue).

Summarise the elements:

If you have a printed copy of the manuscript, it is probably easiest to use this. Open a new document on your computer and going through the printed manuscript, summarise each of the above points in as short a form as possible. Just chuck it all into the one document for now.

The breakdown of Chapter One might look like this:

~Heroine at hospital guarding elderly boss (Green).

~Altercation with boss’s wife. First hint heroine’s internal conflict. She won’t abandon boss (Yellow).

~Hero arrives, inspires her curiosity and interest (Pink).

~Hero is grandson who abandoned her boss. Heroine has big issues with abandonment! (Yellow).

~Hero tormented about leaving his grandfather. Hint at his internal conflict but not all explained (Orange).

~Attracted to heroine who has preconceived dislike of him (Blue).


~Leave hospital together forced into working relationship for good of grandfather (Green).

~If you’re wondering, this is a basic breakdown of the first chapter of Her Millionaire Boss, the first of my Gable Sister stories.

Separate the elements:

Once you have the elements summarised (I think I had about sixteen pages of print at that point), number them so you know where they currently come in the story. It’s a good idea to note the viewpoint character for each story element, too. Divide them into separate documents for each of the story elements and print each of those documents out on whatever coloured paper you’ve allocated to them. I should say here that I chose coloured paper over index cards in the end because a) Office Works didn’t have enough colours of index cards (I did however get over this and buy a footrest and new chair as a sort of really expensive consolation prize) and b) when I stopped in the middle of the store and thought about that lack of colour choice in index cards, I figured it would probably be quicker and would definitely be more legible for me to type than write all this stuff out anyway.

Jigsaw Puzzle Time:

Take your printed coloured pages to your dining table or if you don’t have one, clear the floor. Cut up each of the elements. Lay them out as they appear in the story now, including anything you’ve not yet written, if you’re only partway through your story.

Then haul out the revisions letter or if you’re doing this because you’ve lost your grip on the story, think about what you have written so far and what is to come.

In The Think Tank:

~Look at what’s in front of you. Where are the weak spots in the story, in any of the individual elements?

~Is there enough actual story action moving it all along? Too much?

~Are all the elements, internal conflicts, romantic arcs, developed to their greatest strengths yet honed and focused without pointless deviations that don’t advance the story or raise the stakes?

~Are you trying to include too many strands of internal conflict for one or both of the characters? Have you got six different conflicts going for the hero? (Slaps self and swears not to do that again).

~If you’re working with revisions, what needs to stay as it is? What needs to be less, or more, strengthened or toned down?

~Do you need to add something new, or take away something that doesn’t enhance the story?

~Pull out the bits that have to go. Scribble new coloured paper pieces for anything that needs to be added. Write alterations on the backs of your existing bits of paper.

Ready? Now shuffle the jigsaw pieces, add and take away, shift and sort, make more changes as above until eventually you feel it’s all in place and you have a clear picture that does justice to all required changes. I recommend at least one can of Pepsi Max for this stage, bare feet, and order everyone else out of the house including the cat and the dog and the budgie.

The beauty of taking it into the think tank with small pieces of summarised elements is that it’s not overwhelming. You’ll be surprised what you see and realise about your overall story as you first break it down and summarise into separate elements, and then put it back together looking for weak spots and the right areas to implement change.

On the Corkboard:

Once you’re satisfied you’ve done all you can to improve the story at this grassroots stage, pin your pieces of paper onto the corkboard. At this stage you might still spot some further weaknesses. There’s something about lining it all up then standing back to take a look that gives you a very clear picture of just how much of each of those colours (elements) you have.

On The Page:

Now you can go back to your story itself. Open the manuscript document. I always save it as a new file name so I know I have the old one safe and sound if for any reason I want to go back to it.

Work your way through each coloured piece of paper, strengthening and changing just that part of the story one piece of paper at a time. Some things will need minor tweaks. Some elements might get moved from chapter three to chapter seven. Others will change so much they’ll hardly be recognisable. The beauty here is that even though you’re not looking at the story as one big 55 000 word lump, you can still be confident you’re headed for a cohesive result.

So there it is. One way of taking the story apart, breaking it down, and putting it back together better and stronger than before.

If you have a lovely long revision letter sitting on your desk, or you’ve woken up this morning and realised despite all your efforts you don’t have a clue who these people are and what they’ve done for the past 167 pages maybe The Big Breakdown will help you as it’s helped me. I hope so.

If you have questions, ask away!

Best wishes to you all.

Jennie

Jennie’s latest Harlequin Romance ‘The Italian Single Dad’ is available online at http://www.amazon.com and will be in stores in the US in September 07.

For further information about Jennie’s writing and book releases, visit her website at http://www.jennieadams.net .