The reason I ask is because I’m reviving one of mine. Yes, reviving, not revising. The sad truth is, I had given up on it becoming a book a number of times. But every time I give up, I feel bad and come back to it. Because I know it has potential. I know it is a REAL story that needs to be told. I know it will speak to someone because it speaks to ME. You often hear a manuscript described by writers as one of their children. By the time it becomes anything resembling a book, you have bonded with it in a very strange, personal way. The characters are real to you, like they are part of your family. Like an “easy” baby, some books flow out of you and come together so smoothly that you think you are a genius, and you want to do it again, a million times! Others challenge you all the way till the end. If this manuscript were a baby, it would have colick. And food allergies. If it were a teenager, it would have a boyfriend that wears his wallet on a chain and it would be sneaking bourbon from the liquor cabinet.
I’ve been through I don’t know how many drafts of this book. I usually write continuous drafts, meaning I tweak them as I go, so I don’t typically have more than one copy of a manuscript unless I’ve started over. I have at least 4 different starts on my thumb drive. And I have to admit that the main reason it’s been such a pain in the arse is because when I started writing it, I hadn’t found my voice yet. I also didn’t know anything about the market. I thought you could just write whatever you want and someone would like it. (I can hear the writers reading this going AHAHAHAHAHA!) First, I thought this story was women’s fiction. It IS a story within a story–which I realize is difficult to pull off. There is a danger of getting sucked up in flashbacks, and you need to have an urgent present tense to keep it grounded. So it was a women’s fiction with YA flashbacks. Um, no. But during that draft, I did learn everything I needed to know about the characters for the next draft. Which I thought should be written toward the college aged market, but then I realized that college-aged main characters don’t sell that well. So I started imagining it as a YA book, and I realized the entire plot would have to be changed to fit high school. Then I realized the literary tone was too much as a YA, and it needed to be more accessible–it needed to speak to a wider audience. You see why I wanted to quit and leave it in the proverbial drawer, don’t you?
Well, I’m happy to say that I think I’ve found the right direction for this manuscript and it is FINALLY on it’s way to being an actual book and not just a jumbled disaster in a folder on my thumb drive!
All I have to say to people who are thinking of reviving their own abandoned manuscript is this: get friendly with starting over. And I don’t mean cutting and pasting your favorite parts into some new copy. I mean, go over that manuscript and decide what’s really worth keeping. What is the central point you wanted make? What characters work? What characters can change? What exactly drives the story you want to tell? Then take only that part with you. Ditch the rest. Even though it’s tempting to go back and reclaim scenes that you liked, don’t do it. Create something new from the inspiration that started you on that path. It’s like composting. Or if you want to stick with the baby metaphor? It’s like gathering up all your glass trinkets and packing them away so they can’t get broken, then putting up a gate or two, and setting your monster two-year old is on the loose!
