The Gap

Before I start, hope to see some of you this weekend in Rhode Island. If you haven’t seen where I’ll be, check the Appearances page of my website.

Josiphine, whose first question I discussed last week, had a second: …any tips on rewriting would be extremely appreciated.

In thinking about my response, I remembered a post on the subject and looked it up. My post of November 18th, 2009, is all about revision. If you read it and have further questions, please ask.

Along the same lines, Ella wrote, I’m the kind of writer that plans everything out before I write. When I come to the few spots that I didn’t plan, I skip over them and go on. But now I’m revising and I have to fill in those gaps, and go back and add details and emotions, but it’s really hard. Any tips?
Let’s go to pre-revision. In your next story, which you may be working on now, I suggest not skipping these unplanned parts. Since you’re a planner, when you reach such a place, try planning it out and writing it then and there in your first draft.

It’s possible that these spots don’t fit into your overall story scheme. They may reveal plot problems that get worse if you just soldier on. When you fill in later, the emotions may not feel genuine because you’re forcing your characters to act according to your outline, not according to how they’d actually behave in the situation.

You may discover that these junctures are the keys to your story. They may take it in directions that surprise you but represent, or represent more effectively, your underlying theme.

Now let’s fast forward to revision, to the situation you asked about. You’ve got these gaps. It’s too late for the first draft. What to do?

First off, do you need these scenes? If not, cut them and problem solved.

Do they need to be scenes? Or do they merely represent information that needs to be conveyed, which you can tuck into the narrative or dialogue in another scene? Suppose, for example, that main character Eliot’s uncle has just died, which is important because he was going to pay Eliot’s college tuition. We don’t need the death scene. We may not even need the scene when Eliot finds out. What may be important, however, is his blow-up at his girlfriend Amy because he’s distressed that his education, his hoped-for career, his entire future, is now in doubt. After the argument, during the making up, if he wasn’t too horrible for a reconciliation, he confesses what’s really eating him. Amy and the reader find out together.

If your omissions do have to be scenes, why not plan them even at this late date? (Remember that I’m not a planner and am just guessing how planners make their magic.) Look at where your caesura (If you don’t know the word, look it up!) fits into your outline. Reread what went before and what comes after. Think about how your characters, acting according to their natures, can bridge the gap. How can they express their feelings through thoughts, action, dialogue? What can you find that interests you, that will make the process fun? Is there some aspect of Eliot, for example, that you haven’t explored before? Has the reader experienced his sense of humor or his intellectual side? Can you bring one of these into the new scene? Outline and then write.

Do the new scenes take place in old settings? Can you move the action somewhere else, somewhere you may enjoy describing? Or, can you highlight unexplored aspects of your setting? Eliot will have needs in this scene, or his girlfriend Amy will. Suppose their argument happens in her bedroom. She’s chilly, so she opens the door to her closet where her sweater and tee-shirt shelves are. Above the sweaters is a shelf of stuffed animals that she’s outgrown but can’t bring herself to throw out. She touches the nose of her stuffed penguin for comfort. The stuffed animals and the gesture brings Eliot to his senses, and he realizes how much he’s upset Amy and how adorable and sweet she is.

I’ve exhausted my ideas on this aspect of revision, but I’d welcome follow-up questions.

So, changing the subject. I’m a radio addict. I love to listen to programs that I can learn from, and one of these is Freakonomics Radio, which applies economic theory to surprising topics. I recently listened to a podcast about quitting, and I’ve been thinking about it ever since. The economists who narrate the show have a position, that quitting is good. They advocate quitting – anything! – and quitting quickly.

I’ve been mulling over the program’s ideas as applied to writing, and I think the good economists left out a lot of complexity. Naturally, they’re arguing against the prevailing idea that quitting – being a quitter – is always bad.

Questions come in to the blog sometimes about not finishing stories, and I always say it’s okay not to finish, because we learn from everything we write, fragments as well as completed stories – as long as we keep writing. Many of you are about to participate in NaNoWriMo, and you’re resolved not to quit. In a month you’ll have a big first draft, and then what?

Since they’re economists, the podcasters talk about costs, in this case two kinds of costs relating to quitting or not quitting. There’s opportunity costs and sunk costs, and they’re kind of opposed to each other. You finish your NaNoWriMo book. Maybe you’ve met your word count, maybe not. Doesn’t matter. You start revising and the going gets rough.

The opportunity costs start beckoning. Every hour you devote to revision is an hour you can’t spend starting a new story – or eating, sleeping, studying for your Physics exam. You think about quitting, but you remember your sunk costs. You’ve sunk a month into this book, a month when you could have been eating, sleeping, or studying for your Physics exam. If you walk away, you may have wasted that time and energy and creativity.

I’ve been working on Beloved Elodie for a dauntingly long time. I’m finally making progress but I don’t think I’m even at the halfway point. Should I have quit, maybe after my second false start?

Possibly, but I guess I’m a sunk-costs type. If I had quit I wouldn’t find out where the story goes. I would find out what other tale was waiting for me, but that other tale isn’t as alive for me as the one I’m butting my head against.

Actually, I did quit. Each time I started over I abandoned the storyline that wasn’t working and I’ll never know if I could have pushed on and made it succeed. This hurts. There were good aspects to each attempt, one in particular that I wish I could have figured out.

I guess this is where I wished for more complexity from the radio. There’s loss when you quit, even when quitting is right. And there’s loss when you continue and don’t write whatever else you might have. And there are gains on each side. We have to weigh one against the other. The only certainty I have is that there’s no disgrace in either decision.

Now I’m quitting. Time for prompts:

∙    Find a time gap in one of your stories, a day, a week, whatever. Invent a new scene that takes place during the gap. When you’re finished, ask yourself if you’ve you discovered anything new that will deepen the reader’s understanding of what’s going on.

∙    Write the dust-up between Eliot and Amy. Decide how he would pick a fight. What’s he like when he argues? Show him at his worst.   

∙    Now write Eliot’s journal entry about his uncle’s death and his behavior to Amy.

∙    Think of the fairytale “The Twelve Dancing Princesses,” which we discussed at length in a long-ago post. If you don’t remember the story, look it up. At the end, the soldier chooses the oldest princess for his bride. Let’s imagine that she can accept him or quit being a princess. She’s hardly met him and has hardly been kind to him. Write the scene in which she decides. Write the scene following her decision.

∙    Yes, Cinderella inexplicably continues to obey her stepsisters and stepmother in the original story, not my version, but they also continue to torment her, which cannot be good for their self-esteem. Write a version in which one of the stepsisters decides to do something different, to quit her role. What happens?

∙    Rewrite the tall tale of John Henry and have him quit pounding his hammer and live. What happens next?

Have fun, and save what you write!

29 Responses on “The Gap”

  1. gailcarsonlevine says:

    From the website:

    Nice post! Again, does anyone know of any writing contests or magazines for kid's writing?

    I'm working on a novella right now about dragons, Gail, and I was curious about your take on dealing with magical creatures, as my novella will have lots of them. Do you have any advice on how to deal with them? I'd be happy to hear what other people have to say, too! 😀
    Elizabeth

  3. Josiphine says:

    I have read your posts on rewriting (actually I went through and read ALL of your posts) and while they were very helpful, what I actually want to know is what your formula for rewriting is. Do you completely rewrite everything every time, or just change a word here or there? Do you do different rewrites for different things? (Like a rewrite for characters, a rewrite for plot a rewrite for XYZ….)

    Thank you!

  4. gailcarsonlevine says:

    Josiphine–I'm not that organized! I don't completely rewrite, and I don't focus on one element or another. I just blast through, fixing the elements that seem out of whack, from plot and character down to word choice. Then I do it again. And again. Till I can't think of anything else to do, and then I send it to my editor and the cycle starts over.

  5. gailcarsonlevine says:

    From the website:

    Thank you so much for the post! That really helps! Actually, I've been revising ever since I asked it, and I did get to insert a few scenes that, now, I don't know how I ever could have skipped over! One of them gives a whole new understanding of one of my characters! Still, I will definitely try not to skip from now on,so that, hopefully, it won't be such a nightmare to revise. Thanks for your help!
    Ella

  6. gailcarsonlevine says:

    Also from the website:

    How much is too much problem in your story?

    The more I love my characters, the worse I treat them…my favorite I kill (odd, I know) but I want to know if this may be still causing a Sue-epidemic in my writing. Please help!

    ~RK
    Rubi F

  9. Jenna Royal says:

    Thanks for this post, Gail! I have problems with filler scenes. They're important for the flow of the story – I can't have just conflict or it gets crazy, but the in-between is hard. Hopefully this will help. I'll try to add something important in each one, not necessarily super obvious or super essential, but definitely useful.

    Also, I agree with RK – I have the same problem. How much is too much? In the story I'm currently revising, I'm afraid I'm adding too much conflict. Bad things keep happening, especially to this one MC. They're all connected – it's a series of events, none of them particularly good and most of them decidedly bad.

    The resulting picture is that her world is practically falling down around her shoulders. That's the whole point – it's supposed to be collapsing, at least her view of it. That's what's driving my whole story. But I don't know if it's realistic. I mean, how much can a person handle? Having been in very few of her situations, I honestly don't know.

    Can anyone help me?

  11. gailcarsonlevine says:

    Melissa–I'm up to the end of June on my list, and here we are in the middle of October, so I'm three-and-a-half months behind, which is fine by me. I don't want to run out of questions!

    RK–Do you mean a Mary Sue epidemic? Or is there a different Sue?

    Jenna Royal–I'm adding your question to my list.

    maybeawriter–Can you explain more about the problem?

  12. gailcarsonlevine says:

    Emma and Josiphine–I heard back from my editor at Disney, and the news isn't encouraging. Disney doesn't read unsolicited manuscripts at all. For the FAIRIES books they generally go to writers they've worked with before.

  13. maybeawriter says:

    well, it seems like they don't flow right or seems like there is another word that might fit in better, but I can't really think of any. like there could be a better word of just walking, or the feel of the water.

  15. joyofdawn says:

    Maybewriter- I have had your problem. When I get like that I know that it is time for me to take a writing break. What I mean is, I don't touch my stories. I don't pull out any notebooks I've written in. I hide all my writing. Except for one, my journal. It is the ONLY thing I let myself write in. It frees me from all my questions and problems. When I start to forget things about my stories I find myself extremely curious about what was going on. Usually I don't turn to the last story I was working on immediatly but, for me, there is one story I always come back to. Somehow I just know when I'm ready. It is just a feeling.
    I'm terrible, TERRIBLE, with vocabulary so I sometimes just grab a synonyms book and look up ordinary words then word jump. I find a word I don't recognize or didn't expect to see there under that word. I keep going until I run out of time or get bored. Sometimes I find a word I just have to use yet most times I just have fun.
    So pretty much I just relax my brain. Let it simmer. Set my sights on life and see what it has for me. I tend to read a lot of books or watch movies at this time. My mind just can't stop thinking of things for stories but I totally don't let it take over. Not until I know my story is really ready for me again.
    I hope somehow this can help you. Even if it is to know your not alone. 🙂

  16. joyofdawn says:

    This is happening to me on my very favourite story. It is written in a million peices. (okay maybe not a million but you know what I mean.) I've parts written on napkins, this notebook, that notebook, the back of recipts and other loose papers. Now as I'm putting it all together there are sooo many blank spaces. Eachone is a little harder to fill. That was until I figured out something about my character that I hadn't discovered before. 🙂 As I work each peice, of course I need to rewrite and revise to the new things coming in. My struggle is to remember to reread each peice in context with what I'm writing. The last peice I worked on I added in a character that hadn't been placed into the rewrite yet. 🙂 Yeah that was fun! 😉
    I use a little push. Come on I can always cut it back out! An time… It is a story maker. 🙂

  17. meganpagebypage says:

    Hi Gail, My husband and I heard you speak this past Saturday at the Lincoln School–you have a great way of engaging your audience! We admittedly have not yet read your books but are looking forward to our first. I've been reading through your blog today and I really appreciate your straightforwardness and sense of humor.

    My question is, what do you do when you get stuck on what happens next? Not what the next major plot point, or even a somewhat major plot point, but the small thing? Do you move on to the next thing that's clearer in your head, or do you wait until you figure it out?

    Thanks!

  18. gailcarsonlevine says:

    meganpagebypage–I'm a page-by-page person too, if that's what you mean. I rarely jump ahead. Right now I'm stuck on the appearance of a room, and I've been googling images that might help unstick me.

  19. Rina says:

    @ RK and Jenna Royal… I think I have a little of the same problem! But that's because I'm tending towards the dramatic and even the overdramatic unless I make it my concern not to be. Also, if I like a character, I assume others will too, and so it would raise the suspense if I put them in danger and let them get hurt. At any rate, that's the explanation I put on it.

  20. maybeawriter says:

    Hi,This is maybeawriter's sister, Conily6 and i have a another question, oh and thanks for putting my quesiton about flowing words on your list. How do I write songs in my books? like I want somebody to sing and the reader to know what she/he is singing how to I phrase that?
    Thanks!

  22. gailcarsonlevine says:

    From the website:

    @Conily6–It's difficult to let readers know the tune to the songs your characters are singing, so sometimes (like Gail did in Fairest) it's best to leave it up to the imagination of the reader. Of course, you can always take the tune of a song and put words in there and say "To the tune of Three Blind Mice" or whatever it is before the song. Hope this helps! 🙂
    Elizabeth

  25. maybeawriter says:

    This is maybeawriter's sister, Conily6 again. hi gail thanks I just started reading FAIREST, I enjoy it so far, and in other news, I am almost done with my first book in my series, revising here I come, and I have something to say, as well as thanking my family and friends I will also thank you Gail, you helped after all. And question, how do I get a literary agent? I can't seem to find any that would be for me being a kid and all. Any ideas?

  26. Melissa says:

    Gail- Did you ever think about doing the illustrations for your picture books yourself? I'm reading "Dying To Meet You" by Kate Klise and her sister does the illustrations for it. I think that's really cool.

    I haven't read "The Wish" for a while, but did you name the dog in the book after your own dog?

    Do you ever change the biography in the back of the book? Because I'm pretty sure that "A Tale of Two Castles" still says you have an Airedale named Jake. When did you decide to switch the picture?

    Did you write Ella Enchanted on a typewtiter?

  27. Steph says:

    Gail, I just wanted to thank you for your blog. I would have sent an email, but I didn't see an address, so I'll just post it here. 🙂 I'm one of many writers who would love to be published authors one day, and I have felt discouraged and unsure of what to do with these stories that come spilling out of my fingers. I had a friend (a fellow future author) recommend your blog to me, and I have LOVED it! Your advice is generous, helpful and often just what I need, and the writing prompts are fantastic. It's like a free online writing course for people who love to write! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

  28. gailcarsonlevine says:

    maybeawriter–Here's a link to members of the Association of Author's Representatives: http://aaronline.org/Find. I suggest you proceed as if you were any age at all.

    Melissa–I'm not skilled or comfortable enough as an artist. We named Reggie after the dog in THE WISH. Jake died, and then Baxter died, but Reggie is very much alive! I wrote ELLA ENCHANTED with a pen on a steno pad. Now I write right on my laptop.

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