First off, I\u2019ll be signing books from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm on November 1st at the book fair in Albany, NY. The event is at the Silipigno Athletic Facility, 140 Academy Road. If you are going to be in the area, I\u2019d love to meet you.<\/p>\n
On to the post. On July 23, 2014 Bibliophile wrote, Does anyone else ever cringe when looking at stuff they wrote ages ago? <\/i>
\n
<\/i>
\nI was rereading the one ‘book’ I ever finished writing and just started to die inside. The heroine gives in to the hero too easily, there is no real main conflict and the magic I use is not only cliche, but has no rules. The romance in the book is stilted, as is the dialogue. The main characters literally have zero relationships with any of the other characters and since this isn’t a post-apocalyptic novel, that is unacceptable and just plain weird. <\/i>
\n
<\/i>
\nThe worst part is, I can’t bear to take the time and actually rewrite\/reread it all the way through. I seem to have lost my love for this book, which is a shame because, like I said, it is the only one I have ever ‘finished’. I have tried rewriting dozens of times; I have had conversations with the main character, reimagined the beginning, how they meet, totally reworked the plot. But every time I restart I get lost and annoyed. Is there any way to learn to re-love this story?<\/i><\/p>\n
Michelle Dyck responded: Yes, I have certainly cringed – numerous times – when rereading old stuff! (I mentioned earlier the book I’m returning to. It’s a mess.) The good thing about cringing is that it just goes to show how much you’ve grown as a writer since then.<\/i>
\n
<\/i>
\nDig deep into the heart of that story. Look past the weaknesses, stiltedness, and clich\u00e9s, and search for the core. That’s probably what inspired you to write it in the first place, and it’s what can inspire you again. Remember what you loved about it. There’s got to be something that kept you going back when you first drafted it, and even if it’s not as sparkly now as it was then, it’s something! Try to draw it out. Reimagine what you can do with the story’s potential. Maybe that will help you see the problems with the eye of an artist, seeing more than what’s there, but what could be.<\/i><\/p>\n
I\u2019m with Michelle Dyck. I certainly have old writing that now makes me uncomfortable. And even in stories that I do like, that I\u2019m working on now, I make mistakes. Recently, in a poem, I imagined a genie granting me wishes. He was an inquisitive being and unwilling to grant anything unless he was sure it would make me happy. I wished for the ordinary things: health and long life for me and the people (and dog) I love. I admitted these might just keep us alive and well. What would preserve my happiness, I wrote, was for writing to continue to be hard. Poem or no poem, I really believe this. No matter how badly a story or a poem was going, I\u2019d never ask a genie for perfect writing or for writing to be easy. That would be dreadful, to sit down every day and pop out glorious plots and poems, effortlessly. How boring! How could I grow as a writer? I would weep and tear my hair.<\/p>\n
I also agree with Michelle Dyck that being able to see the flaws in an old work is a mark of progress.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what you might try, what any of us can try with a story that no longer pleases us:<\/p>\n
Without looking at it, just from memory, list (on paper or in your computer) the elements of the old story that you do like, scenes, bits of dialogue, descriptions. Now, without judgment, think about the main plot line. Write it out in a sentence or a paragraph. Again without judgment, list the main characters and the important secondaries.<\/p>\n
Consider what you might do with what you\u2019ve got–what you might do now, using the skills you\u2019ve developed. We can regard this as a new story, but a lot of the work has been done, and how great is that?<\/p>\n
Bibliophile says that in the old, despised version the characters didn\u2019t connect with one another. Now is the time to think how they might interact, where they might come into conflict, where they might support each other, how they can contribute to our MC\u2019s struggle and ultimate success or failure.<\/p>\n
And the magic. Just because it didn\u2019t have rules before doesn\u2019t mean it can\u2019t have them now. Where should the magic come in, and what might be behind it?<\/p>\n
I have a novel, like Bibliophile\u2019s, that I put aside, and, when I tried to read it, about a year ago, I found it so intolerable I had to put it down. It\u2019s called My Future Biography<\/i>. Just from the title you may be able to guess the problem: my MC, Marita, is obnoxious. She\u2019s full of herself and always sure she\u2019s right. The plot turns on something she does that\u2019s so damaging, it\u2019s impossible to like her. She learns her lesson, but too late for this reader.<\/p>\n
At the same time, I like the secondary characters and adore two of them. The almost-boyfriend is utterly delicious. And the beginning of the book is hysterical. And I share some faults with Marita, like that tendency to think I\u2019m always right, so I\u2019m fond of her. But even in my most misguided moments, I would never have done what she does.<\/p>\n
Maybe someday I\u2019ll go back to the book. If I do–and thinking about it is getting me interested–I would follow the approach I just outlined. I might tone Marita down a little, and I\u2019d give her other, likable qualities to keep the reader in her corner. And I\u2019d find another way to deliver the lesson so that she doesn\u2019t have to sabotage people who\u2019ve been good to her.<\/p>\n
Hmm…<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s possible that I couldn\u2019t save the story if I tried, or I couldn\u2019t save it yet, until I grew more as a writer, or until the right idea arrived. There are lots more stories to write, and I should get cracking on them rather than mooning over an old one. If Bibliophile or anyone else is drawn to an old story only because it\u2019s the only one she\u2019s finished, that\u2019s not enough of a reason. If finishing is a goal, which it can be but doesn\u2019t have to be, you might look at my posts on the subject, which you can find by clicking on the label finishing stories<\/i>, and you may also want to check out my posts on revision.<\/p>\n
Here are four prompts:<\/p>\n
\u2022 I love genies! In a takeoff on \u201cThe Shoemaker and the Elves,\u201d your MC is a writer who has a genie looking out for her. She finishes the day\u2019s writing with her hero in trouble, but when she wakes up in the morning, her genie has solved everything. The story is finished, typed, and printed out. Write what happens next.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Take it a step further. This over-zealous genie has emailed the manuscript in the middle of the night to five agents, one of whom, over-zealous as well, has already sent it on to three editors, and one of them has made an offer. The problem\u2013-one of the problems–is that your MC wrote only twenty pages of this three-hundred page opus. Your MC is ambitious and eager to get published. Write what happens.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Try the method in this post. Go back to an old story that no longer pleases you. If you can\u2019t bear to read it, just think about it. Remember what you loved about it and use that as the springboard for a new story.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Your MC is a new enrollee at the Hope for the Hapless Improvement School, which promises to turn every student into a heroine. Her failings: messiness, weepiness, awful chapped lips, an uneven growth curve, and an unusual sense of humor. The school has never taken in such a desperate case before, and the head mistress sees the new student as an opportunity to bring fame and fortune to the establishment. Write the chronicle of her school days.<\/p>\n
Have fun, and save what you write!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
First off, I\u2019ll be signing books from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm on November 1st at the book fair in Albany, NY. The event is at the Silipigno Athletic Facility, 140 Academy Road. If you are going to be in the area, I\u2019d love to meet you. On to the post. On July 23, 2014 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[26],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":297,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20\/revisions\/297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}