Re-envisioning Your Story

I told you I own two books on revision, so I thought I’d share some of the insights I’ve gleaned. The first book is Revision: A Creative Approach to Writing and Rewriting Fiction by David Michael Kaplan. One of the things David says about revision is that it’s a re-envisioning of your story. That re-envisioning may be as different from your initial first draft as the new Star Trek film is different from the original TV series. Similarities, differences, and lots to love about them both.

The other thing I love about David’s take on revision is that he doesn’t consider it drudgery, fraught with angst, a task to be completed as quickly as possible. He says it can be one of the most creative parts of writing. (And again I refer back to my Star Trek example. I love the new Star Trek movie!)

I didn’t understand or believe this until I rewrote the superhero novel. The notes from my agent took me in an entirely new direction, requiring in fact a page-one rewrite. Talk about re-envisioning! But I liked the new draft. And the old one. When it became clear my agent and I were seeing the story quite differently, I had to ask myself a tough question: what was I going to do with two different stories that were both the beginning of this superhero’s story?

I chose the difficult but liberating path of beginning a third entirely different draft, another page-one rewrite. In following my agent’s notes, I’d lost some of the passion and charm in the story – in that way, the first version was better. But rewriting the story from an entirely different perspective fueled my imagination, solidified the characters, and helped me see what I was really trying to say. In that way, the second version was superior.

But neither story was perfect.

So I thought about and wrote down all the things I liked about each draft. I liked it better that she was married (1^st draft) but loved the interplay between two people falling in love (2^nd draft), so I decided the third draft would begin with her returning from her honeymoon. The best of both worlds. I went through all the characters and plot lines this way, taking the best from each version and trying to come up with the best possible track for the story to follow.

David was right – re-envisioning is filled with creative fun!

In the book, he focuses on three kinds of revision – revising for style, revising for structure, and revising for meaning. The eleven chapters discuss why you should revise and when (including before writing), knowing what to cut and what to add and what to rearrange, revising endings, what to do when you’re stuck, and – this one is interesting – knowing when to give up on the story.

When you get started on your revisions, if you normally think of this phase as difficult, look at it as a new vision of your story – another creative, fun round of playing with words. Hope you’re having half as much fun as I am!