Write Hot, Revise Kool!

I promised I would let everyone know about the awesome things I learned at the Surrey International Writers’ Conference (SiWC).

For all you NaNoWriMo people the last thing you want to hear about is revising (am I right?!) given that you’re trying to get your word count up.

But this is good stuff and will come  in handy.

I took a master class from James Scott Bell which was awesome and a workshop on 'Revising a Novel They Can’t Put Down' (not sure who 'they' refers to - sounds like a conspiracy theory if you ask me, and why can't they put it down? is there crazy glue on the cover ... I digress). 


James Scott Bell has written scads of thrillers and three books on craft including The Art of War for Writers. 

Here’s his advice (aka the JSB rules for drafting):

Write Hot:

passionately and quickly; 
write from the subconscious (very NaNoWriMo ;-j); and,
push the limits in the first draft.

Revise Cool:

revise the previous day’s pages;

take a 20,000 word step back; and,

do a rolling outline – what will be in the next three chapters?

On the first read through (after a 2 week cooling period – don’t make your manuscript take out a restraining order on you!) read like a reader. Resist the temptation to take notes or edit and read as fast as possible.

James Scott Bell uses four main symbols for revising:

√ - for when the story is dragging

( ) - incomprehensible

O - material needs to be added or expanded

? - when you don’t know what’s going on – why did I write that? Why does my character eat nothing but sushi and sour ju jubes? 

Then once you've read it through - cry,  take a shot of scotch, or make some chia tea and pop a few sour ju jubes. Do all three if you have to – but at the end of the day (is that a cliche I see behind me?) you’re a writer and you know you will have to begin what JSB calls the Systematic Revision Process.  

Ask yourself: does the story make sense? Do the characters act like real people? Look at every juncture from the pov of each character. Don’t let a coincidence help your lead character – no deus ex machina! Are the stakes high enough?

Here are some gems from JSB:

- originality is not in the plot, but in the characters!

- inner conflict is the key.

- is there enough of a worry factor?

- banish slow openings: no happy people in happy land.

- dialogue is the fastest way to improve a manuscript.  


P.S.: he's a big fan of death in a novel - physical, professional and psychological (or better yet, all three types of death). So of course I had to show him a copy of my debut novel Dead Frog on the Porch which not only has death in the title, but in the opening scene and the twin protags are motivated by that death to save the rest of the frog kingdom ... just saying!