I am attempting to edit and revise my nano novel; City of Lies. It reminds me why I decided to completely rewrite Prince of Yen from scratch rather than attempting to finish revisions. I have finished reading it, and sticking sticky notes on every page telling myself what to do with each chapter. The list includes:

Rearrange event orders.
Add a subplot
Add a new character.
Remove a character.
Change the relationship between two characters.
Change the relationship between two other characters.
Change the theology.
Change the religion.

Arg! Why did I ever become a writer? How in the world does one add a whole new character to an already written story? She isn't there, she has to be written in, which means I'm going to have to alter every scene she's in, and half the book to explain her existence! She can't be there if she never does anything, can she? It'd be easier to just rewrite the whole scene than to try and work her in! Since the book already exists without her how do I decide which scenes she's in and what she does? She doesn't do anything right now, so I have to create things for her to do! Which involves, of course, changing events!

Removing characters are the most nightmarish things. Just when you think you've edited out all references there it is again, haunting you like ghost with a poor sense of humour. You hate the character, she never did anything, and yet every time you turn around there's her name getting in the way, driving you insane...

(Can you tell I have a problem with female characters in this book?)

And then there are all the little inconsistencies, like the name of the flying cars. Flycars? Flycarts? Maglevs? Magcars? I need to pick one, and then I need to make it consistent!

Meanwhile, I have this little issue of outline and structure. I keep trying to just come up with a coherent outline that I can fit it into and failing epically. So I gave up on the outline and went back to the document, but I still don't know what I'm doing! Ever heard of revising by the seat of your pants?

*sigh*
*bangs head against keyboard*

Thanks for listening. *feeble grin*

*returns to revising*

I know exactly what you mean, since I am going through similar revisions myself.


We didn't become writers. We were born writers.

Oh....revising and editing.

I actually enjoy it. >.O

But I can feel your pain. I've never had to cut out or add characters before. Well, I have, but they weren't deeply ground into the story, so it didn't take much work.

Not that I've actually /done/ much revising. <.<

*hugs poor Vanya* Aww, you poor thing! But no one ever said something worthwhile was easy. But that's little comfort. And I just violated three grammar laws...

Anyway, why do you need a whole new character? Can your story do without her? If you are using Microsoft Word, you can click "Find" and put in your character's name and find every time you use it so you can delete it.

Or you could use that as a first draft, and instead of writing dribs and drabs in so many places, begin it all over again using that as your outline. (Might sound daunting, but it might be neater in the long run)

You could call the cars... Aerocars?

There. That's a whole lot of unhelpful information from someone who hasn't even yet completed a book!

The problem with this book from the start has been that there aren't enough characters. I have a huge, complex plot, and a huge, complex set of operations that have to be run, and it's all done by... four people. The character I'm taking out is a flat android type boring thing. That's not horribly difficult, except it's haunting me. I want to add a highly irritating feminist captain, so that we can have somebody to hate. Not a main character, but she still has to be integrated into the plot.

Hm... I could imagine it would be very hard to write someone like that in. You could always have her insisting that it was outside regulations, or she was really in charge all the time, give the characters something to try and bend around.

I can't give much advice there, sorry Vanya!

I highly recommend using what you've written as a draft, and rewrite the whole thing. You can pick and choose excerpts, maybe even long passages from the original draft to put in the rewrite but ultimately that will get you the most coherent and best-running novel. =) How do I know? I did it. It really does help you get your novel all together the way it should be. (Note: for best results, do not do at night while extremely tired. Also did that....)

eruheran

Shawn said it before me.

I'm going to have to do some serious revising as well with one of my manuscripts. And I still can't decide whether to get rid of a certain character, or give her more things to do.

OK, I just got a little idea. . . tell me if it's crazy or if it would work. . . what if we made it our goal in February to each fix up our messy stories? Then we could work together and PM and things like that. . . accountability. . . I'm yakking. Sorry. What do you say?

That's actually a really good idea. Maybe we could set up something like that in Quests.

Eruheran: That's what I'm doing with Prince of Yen. I would really, really, really, really, really like to not have to do that with anything else.

Aha!!! *idea strikes*

*runs off to write*

I can sympathize with your lack of characters problem. (I have too many. And many of those aren't very interesting...)

So, let me get this straight: You have an amazing complex plot but only four characters to carry it out. You're removing a character because she's bland, right? And adding your annoying captain. (And from past experiences from characters like that, I will not just hate her, I will despise her, so your intentions will be well played. )

So you'll still only have four characters? Do you plan on adding more?

(My personal advice is to keep your bland character in the story, but take her aside and spice her up. Make her interesting.)

And yes, I agree with Eruheran. Starting over in rewriting might be the best course of action. It might sounds hassle-ish but in the end it could save you a lot of headache.

No matter what you say, I still think this is a completely awesome story and it's going to be fantastical when it's done.

If starting from scratch works for you, do it! It doesn't matter how you revise as long as it works for you. (And I did get your email with the drafts - I'm just behind on reading.)

Knowing a bit about the story, I'm going to miss the android, but I know she didn't do much. What if you combined the two characters? Make the android into the annoying captain.

Not that I'm eager to have someone to hate in your novel. I love everybody... even though sometimes I have no idea who's good and who's not... it's fantastic...

No one said you had to have a huge cast of characters. Many movies only have a handful of highly-developed ones and then a bundle of extras on the side.

The character I'm removing doesn't count as one of the four. I stopped even trying to write about her after week one, so it's pretty much just remnants. The new character will take her place, sort of, but I have a better idea.

One of the characters underwent several personality changes before the book was out. Sometimes he was kind and fatherly, sometimes he was irritating and selfish. This is another thing I have to fix, and I just came up with the solution! Since he so often time does completely opposite things, (due to the fact that this was Nanowrimo and I was desperate just to write scenes regardless of if they fit in or not,) I realized that my obnoxious character can take his place when he's being annoying!! Suddenly my life is simpler!

Now all I need is a name...