A few weeks ago, after
finishing another draft of my work in progress, I found myself once more at the
edge of the forest, resisting the next leg of a seemingly unending journey,
unsure of what kinds of confidence-gobbling monsters were waiting for me.
Sometimes the landscape of revision smells too strongly of fear.
But after spending
last weekend with six like-minded Bay Area writers at a novel revision retreat
workshop led by Darcy Pattison, I am now looking forward to the terrain.
I have to admit that I
went into the workshop with my doubts—would I really hear anything new? I was
ready to clench my jaw and roll my eyes when asked for the twelve-hundredth
time; what does your character want? What stands in her way? What does she try
and fail and try and fail and try and fail to do to get what she wants? (Isn’t
it obvious? She wants…you know, love, happiness, the same thing we all want.
Life gets in the way. Right?)
But Darcy didn’t ask
these questions. Instead, she led us through a systematic and uncompromising process—a
series of steps I’d never taken. An unexpected revision landscape, new and
different from any I had walked before.
She wisely started out
telling us what to expect in the learning curve department, describing the
stages of learning as: unconscious incompetence (you don’t know and you don't know
you don’t know) conscious incompetence (you know you don’t know) conscious
competence (you know and you know you know) and then the ultimate goal which is
unconscious competence (you know but you don’t know that you know because the
skills and knowledge are automatic and at work in your subconscious.)
Well. That’s
different. And hearing it, we all knew it was true.
The next eye-opening
step was to analyze our shrunken manuscripts—we had all followed directions and
arrived with our 250+ page novels shrunken down to 30 pages through reducing
the type face and in some cases, dividing it into two columns per page. From
there we went to work with brightly colored markers tracking narrative arc,
macro and micro plotting, emotional arc over the entire story and by scene, and
dialogue. Standing back and taking in
this map of our stories revealed some surprising unconscious incompetence—in
other words, the places that needed work. Now we knew what we didn’t know. But
never fear; Darcy reminded us that the first step to fixing something is
figuring out what needed fixing.
Besides strategies for
strengthening plot and developing scenes, her method offers many new and powerful
tools for deepening and texturing. One tool involves using word connotations to
add depth. Word connotations help you make word choices that reinforce the
story and deepen meaning. Darcy suggests
having word banks and regularly depositing words that fit your story. They will
be invaluable when you start considering narrative patterning and progressions.
Wait, what? I cannot
explain here what it took us the whole weekend to understand but for any writer
looking for a fresh and useful way to revise, I highly recommend going to
Darcy’s wonderful website http://www.darcypattison.com to see
what she has to say about these tools and more. Then buy her workbook and use
it. Or better yet, gather a group of like-minded writers and have Darcy come
for a weekend writer’s retreat.
The landscape of
revision is a rocky one. But with a goodie bag, a compass and a readable map,
the crossing doesn’t look so bad.
Take Good Care,
Sharry
