Revising, Setting the Pace

This time around while revising MS:TS, even though I’ve done a couple of large revision projects, feels so different. That is in large part because it isn’t a new expereince for me and I knew what to expect when I started, but it’s also because of how I’m setting my pace.

This time around I am taking my time to go through each scene and each peice of the story. It’s not the time that’s driving me, though I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to hurry my pace, but the story and what it needs. It is a constant thing to remind myself not to run as I go, though diving in and out of the story is easier than I thought it would be. What I’ve found especially when going through the story this way is that I can let myself sit with a thought the way I haven’t before. Instead of writing a conclusion to an action in order to get to the next action, I’m pulling back, analyzing what’s happened before and how it’s changed the characters, and understanding the implications of what’s happened. Taking my time to fully understand each piece of that process allows me to take that understanding and use it to craft a better scene. Sometimes that process happens quickly, but other times I need to take some time and space and let the knowing come to me when it’s ready. In the first scenes of MS:TS, I’ve changed the major event to happen much sooner. It’s changed how I want my characters to be seen right away and that changes how they interact with each other. Specifically with the sister who now shares the narrator’s seat, it changes how they will be and how they will be with each other.

Next week I hope to continue working through the first few chapters of the story. Knowing that a major scene is coming sooner, it’s changed what needs to happen and I’m still working through that. Specifically next week I need to decide if a certain character should be introduced to the sisters before or after that major event. They are aware of the character, but they haven’t met him yet. Deciding where that character comes into play changes one of my main character’s awareness of him and how their relationship progresses. It’s a weird situation to play out and honestly I don’t know which path to take. I’m going to do some writing exercises with the characters, perhaps writing a scene long after the crisis that unfolds with both situations. Will they understand each other better in that moment if they’ve met before? Will my character feel stronger knowing she’s done all that she will do without knowing him before? Will the other character understand who she is differently knowing her before AND will that understanding change how he interacts with her? Will she feel more cared for or more resentful in that situation? I don’t think these are answers I will get until I write some of the scenarios out and that is just what I plan to take time to do.

In case you haven’t been told today, you are more than enough.

With you in words, Nikole