![]() ![]() Now consider the elements you highlighted, one by one. Do the colors seem in proper balance? Are there any chapters that are significantly shorter or longer than the rest? Viewed this way, the outline looks rather like a tapestry, the various elements threading their way through it. When you’ve finished highlighting, spread the pages on the floor end-on-end. Where are the tense moments in the novel? Where, exactly, does the story torque? Are there enough torques, are they paced effectively, do they work? What do they suggest in terms of heightening these elements throughout? What do your discoveries about this and other tensions in the novel suggest in terms of heightening the tension throughout? For example, if one of the novel's tensions lies in a character's realization that his girlfriend wants to get married fear that his girlfriend is pregnant, highlight every place in the book where marriage or anything relating to it comes into play. Consider the various elements in the novel that contribute to the overall tension, and highlight for each one. Is each character given equal space? Should each be given equal space? Is each different point of view necessary? If it has multiple points of view, highlight each. If your novel moves back and forth in time, highlight each level of time with a different color to help you see if they are in the right balance. If you notice a lot of narrative passages, highlight for both narrative and scene to see if they are in good balance. Where do both colors appear on the same page? What happens between the characters on those pages? How does the accumulation of moments define-or fail to define-the relationship? ![]() In this case, highlight the second character with a different color. Perhaps it occurs to you, looking at one character, that it would be helpful to see his relationship with another character more clearly. Are there whole chapters or sections where the character is not there at all? If so, is his absence appropriate or do you need to find ways to weave him more tightly into the novel? What might those ways be? Scene? Narrative? Flashback? Jot them down, of course.īut the greatest insights will most likely come when you finish the highlighting, spread the pages on the floor, and literally see the path of the character through the novel. Insights and ideas often occur in the process, as they did when you went through the manuscript page by page. You might track a character through the book, highlighting every place that character is present, mentioned or even thought of. Work through everything on your list, using a different color or symbol for each element. Isolate one element, and go through your "outline," highlighting/marking each place it appears on the page. For example: character, emotion, description, the balance of scene and narrative, dialogue, transitions. When you get all the way to the end, consider what floated up to make a list of things you want to look at closely. Weirdly, keeping your left brain busy allows the renegade right brain to range all over the place, triggering useful ideas and observations once you get into the flow. Type the first line of the chapter, use bullet points to summarize what happens in it, then type the last line of the chapter. Go through your manuscript chapter by chapter. This exercise is guaranteed to help you assess the first (second, third, whatever) draft of your novel and set revision tasks for the next. Refreshments: store-bought Christmas cookies. We'll write, commiserate, write some more. Next year, a few days before Christmas, I am going to offer "Christmas Motel: An Afternoon of Escape from the Holiday Spirit" as a Writers' Center class. It cheered me up all through this season-though, alas, not enough to avoid the holiday plunge. This picture of the Christmas Motel, sent my pal Mary Nicolini, captures how Christmas feels to me. I don't remember anything about the poems Chris brought, just that reading them and saying something useful and encouraging was something I knew how to do. After Chris's call that day, I salvaged what I could salvage of the burnt, broken cookies, cleaned up the mess in the kitchen, and swore, Scarlett O'Hara style, As God is my witness, I will never, ever bake Christmas cookies again. I get tireder and tireder, until I can barely stay awake.Īnyway. I sink lower and lower into a bad mix of sadness, guilt, anxiety,and dread. To say the least, I don't "do" Christmas well. I think she thought I was kidding, but I was as serious as a heart attack. "And thank you, thank you, thank you for reminding me who I am. ![]() Apologetically, she said that she had received a sheaf of poems from a student and had no idea what to say to him about them. Once, while in the midst of the (I believed then) obligatory baking of Christmas cookies, my friend Chris Torke called. ![]()
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