Crawling through a story

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I'm still struggling with the first section of The Next Novel. Putting scenes under a microscope, I realize how much I've left unsaid — unimagined.

How exactly do they get into the city? By what route?
Do they need papers?
What are they wearing?
What are they seeing, experiencing, feeling?
Where will they stay the night?
How will they lock up their things?
What about the donkey! Doesn't she need food and water?

On one level the revision process has to do with the big picture: the movement of energy from one scene to another. On another level it has to do with the little picture, the microscopic view, with bringing scenes to life through detail. Both are the work of the 3rd draft.

I often think of Ariel Gore's summation of the writing process: lather and rinse, lather and rinse. I'm at a lather stage, but I wish it were that easy. It feels, instead, like crawling through a story, groping in the dark. It can be painstaking, and often, for me, requires quite a bit of research. It's slow going — but then, as I've said many times before, beginnings are the hardest.

Digging deep: the 3rd draft

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I imagined that I could write the 3rd draft of The Next Novel this summer, but I forgot how difficult the 3rd draft can be: it digs deep. I imagine that the 4th and 5th drafts will be on the down-hill slope, but for now, just starting on the 3rd, it's all up-hill.

It's a little confusing knowing how to proceed. Dan wants me to take my time on the first section. It's only 40 pages, but it's the most important part of the novel. Everything that happens comes out of these pages.

I need a plan. Because so much has to be re-visioned (re-imagined), I decided to retype it, rewriting as I go. I'm aiming to double the length, and then edit, cutting it back. Could I finish this section this month?

I began this morning setting out 10 pages. I had no way of knowing how many pages I might get through in a day. I hoped it would be more, but I thought 10 pages a fair estimate.

I got through 3 and 1/2: at this pace, the 479-page MS will take almost 7 months.

Beginnings are always the hardest.

Am I doing my taxes? NO.

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Am I doing my taxes? NO. I'm reading writer blogs. I so totally relate to this post on revising on C.W. Gortner's blog:

At times, I honestly thought the book would crumble apart and found myself ruing the day I decided I could tackle such a difficult subject. Catherine led a long, eventful, and unbelievably complicated life; the decision during this revision rapidly became one that often put me, as they say in Spain, between the cape and the sword. I had to make very tough decisions between what must stay and what must go; and when you're writing a historical novel that covers an actual person's life, that is not an easy thing to do. In fact, I had an agonizing few weeks when I wondered if I could even do her justice, given the constraints.

I'm very much looking forward to reading this novel, The Confessions of Catherine de Medici.