Wow, it’s been a couple weeks since I’ve done a Tackle It Tuesday. I’ve been slacking on a lot of the bloggerly things. Well, what’s a better way to get back into it than to revisit my Rewritepocalypse process, going through the second stage. You can find the first post I did here.

A whole new beast…

Stage 2 is difficult for me to explain. There’s so much that goes into it, like Act 2 of a story. The meat of what I do is contained in this particular stage.

Where we left off…

At the end of Stage 1, I’ve got a quite marked up document, and a bare bones outline of the story arc. Depending on the complexity of the story, I might have several bare bone outlines of the story arc. I’ve got most of my weak points in the story marked but I haven’t started to fix anything at this point. I’ve gone through each scene one by one and deleted the fillers that don’t advance the plot, or really, just marked them for deletion.

Starting Stage 2

First thing I do for Stage 2 is to open a new document. It’s so much easier to keep things organized when you keep them separate. So I open up a new document every time I start a new draft.I save my revisions in versions, i.e. “FileName_V1-0.doc”. This keeps things safe for me, so I can go back to a previous version if I decide that the day’s work i did sucks.

This is the longest stage and the most tedious, at least for me. Some stories require a large amount of rewriting, some just a few tweaks. Use your best judgement and keep to the >six points of your plot I mentioned in Stage 1.

Many writers work on hard copy at this point but I find I like working electronic, not to mention it’s much cheaper not printing out 300 pages every time I do a rewrite.

How much of a rewrite do I really need to do?

To figure out how much of a rewrite you’re looking at, i prefer to start by taking it scene by scene. Each scene must advance your plot points in some way. Each scene must have a beginning, middle, and resolution. Analyzing each scene is a long process but it’s important to do because having useless filler scenes in your story is not only bore your reader but will also turn them off.

Be ruthless.

For me, I use Jim Butcher’s advice I got from his LiveJournal a few years ago. Go read it in its entirety. I highly recommend. For now, I’m just going to show you how I use what he wrote for rewrites, as his posts are geared towards those just starting to write a story.

So what does a scene that works have to have?

Scenes are constructed of several components, and during the rewrite I have to make sure all the components are there so the machine works. So, when I start Stage 2, I’ve already glossed over the scenes, marked them up a little, and figured out which ones to keep. However, I may be adding more to the deletion file. (Just a quick hint… Never delete. Copy and paste into a separate file that has everything you’ve cut)

The first thing I do is identify the point of view character. A lot of times, it’s easy, because I love first person. But I also have love for third person limited on occasion, especially when I’m writing romance, and sometimes, I even do a first person with more than one character. The main thing to do, if you do have more than one character is figure out who has the most to lose in the scene. That means figuring out what your POV character’s goal is. This needs to be an ACTIVE, SPECIFIC goal, not something that encompasses the entire book because a person’s mind just doesn’t think about that. Instead, your character needs to have a goal more like take the girl out for a wonderful night on the town with lots of attention to detail and customized surprises for her” rather than “make the girl like me.”

The most important thing about goals is that they must be clear, attainable, specific, and important to your POV character.

Next up is Conflict, the very heart of our story. Without conflict, there is no story, let alone a scene. I like how Jim Butcher describes it in his blog: “CONFLICT, ideally, is two characters going head-to-head (on whatever level is appropriate–social knife-fighting can make reading every bit as interesting as literal knife-fighting), while both of them try to achieve conflicting goals.”

There are four ways to resolve the conflict in the scene. Again, I’m a big fan of Jim Butcher’s blog post for this one as well so I’m just going to copy his answers like a little cheat because I can’t say it better.

1: YES. Already told you, this one is a no-no. It’s the simplest, leaves you with the least drama and the fewest options. It’s predictable, almost inherently comes with less conflict, and gives you the worst odds of keeping a reader’s attention.

2: YES . . . BUT. This one is a lot better. In this scenario, your hero accomplishes his scene goal all right–but there’s a complication of some kind, and one that might have consequences down the line. Generally, the more dire and/or disastrous the potential consequence, the better.

3: NO! Another solid scene resolution, from the writing standpoint. The hero sets out to attain his goal, but is flatly denied. Maybe he gets shut down by the antagonist. Maybe he makes a mistake and blows it completely. Either way, he gives it his best shot and is slapped down. Now he’ll have to back off, re-evaluate the situation, and try something else. Use this scene answer with some caution, because it can have the effect of bringing your story to a halt. Too many of them can become frustrating for the reader, and can make your character look foolish and/or impotent, thus reducing reader empathy and the tension of your overall story.

4: NO! AND FURTHERMORE! My personal favorite scene answer. Not only does your hero NOT attain his goal, but he manages to make matters even WORSE along the way. It’s best if the worsening of the situation is your protagonist’s fault, because that’s just FUN, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be. THIS answer is really the one that gives you the most interesting scenes, provides the meat for the most interesting and endearing sequels, and is generally the Big Gun you pull out when your plot is slowing down. Warning: it does force you, as the writer, to get a little creative, because it multiplies the problems your hero has to solve. But hey. If you weren’t at least a little creative, you wouldn’t be here.

After you’ve got the basic set up of the scene,you’re ready to analyze and ask the whyfores and all that jazz. You’ve lathered up. Now rinse and repeat for every scene in the novel. Remember how I said Stage 2 is tedious and takes forever? My novels typically have around 100 scenes, depending on length. It takes forever. But by going through each scene this way, you figure out exactly what you need your scenes to accomplish. If you haven’t got one of these components, you can add it in here in this stage.

Alright, you’ve got all the scenes down and you’ve rewritten the ones that need it and you’re making progress on your Rewritepocalypse.

What do you do now?

Finish Stage 2, that’s what. Because Stage 3 is coming, the final stage. Getting over Stage 2 is a monumental hump. Do it and you’re home free. Stage 3 is cleanup. But that’s a post for another day. This one’s already too long.