Dabbling with a Shrunken Manuscript
I finished my Mad Libs draft of Phoenix Rising in December 2009 and then let it sit for a looong time. The incubation period had nothing to do with me not loving the project, but everything to do with life and that other monster, Falling to Normal*.
While I worked on Falling to Normal and then nanowrimodraft10*, Phoenix Rising percolated some more. I edited and still wasn't confident on sharing it with people. Yet. Hubby went and actually read Mad Libs draft 1.1. Much to my surprise, he even had feedback**. So I took his feedback and thought. Then, in support of procrastination, I decided I'd try doing a shrunken manuscript.
A what?
It's this thing I read about on Darcy Pattison's website and several other blogs. What you do is you take your project and condense it down to thirty pages. The goal is to get a visual look at the strengths and weaknesses of your manuscript.
I'll admit that it sounds convoluted and pretty confusing. I had to reread the directions multiple times before I got it, but once I understood what I was supposed to be doing, it finally clicked. Once you've eliminated all page breaks and reduced the font to something ridiculous, you're supposed to locate your strong chapters, your dialogue heavy scenes, etc. From everything I read, the shrunken manuscript is adaptable to what you are looking for.
That sounds like a pain in the ass.
Maybe just a little. Especially when you live with The White One who really likes messing up anything you stick on a table. Crazy cats aside, I did manage to complete a shrunken manuscript.
Since Phoenix Rising is a multiple POV book, I wanted to make sure that all my key players had equal face time with the reader. My two main characters needed to own the majority of the scenes and my secondary ones couldn't upstage them.
I color-coded my POV characters and my dialogue-heavy scenes***. Halfway through the first act, I encountered a problem. I had a fifth POV. I knew four was pushing it, but FIVE? I hurried back to my key and added my fifth character color code, denoted by a grey P. (I had run out of highlighters.) Then I backtracked to incorporate the added POV.
In my head everything seemed cool, but the shrunken manuscript does not lie.
What did you find out?
Interesting. How did this change your revision plan?
With such a heavy focus on Pike in act one, I knew I had to carry that through the rest of the novel. This was an easy fix by eliminating what I discovered was a SIXTH POV and throwing those scenes in Pike's POV. It tightened up the middle a bit as well.
And since I was already aware of my crap middle, I put extra focus on strengthening those plot points. Things push along better now with some much needed development on the subplot frontier. Walker's POV is still stronger than Kyla's, but I think that's okay for now. Their combined story works better that way I think.
Will you shrink again?
Most definitely. As I get older, I'm discovering that I'm very much the visual learner. I think doing it so early in the revision process eliminated several drafts. What's awesome is that I can tailor my focus with each go-round as well.
What new techniques have you tried prior to a big revision?
Also! I'm giving away a Circa Starter Kit. You have until Sunday to enter.
* Remember, Alicia + titling = literary disasterpiece.
** The last beta read from Hubby was problematic because it wasn't something he was jazzed about.
*** Being the dialogue-loving whore I am, I fully anticipated every other page to be all dialogue.
____________
Last.fm hit of the day: Presence by Anathema
While I worked on Falling to Normal and then nanowrimodraft10*, Phoenix Rising percolated some more. I edited and still wasn't confident on sharing it with people. Yet. Hubby went and actually read Mad Libs draft 1.1. Much to my surprise, he even had feedback**. So I took his feedback and thought. Then, in support of procrastination, I decided I'd try doing a shrunken manuscript.
A what?
It's this thing I read about on Darcy Pattison's website and several other blogs. What you do is you take your project and condense it down to thirty pages. The goal is to get a visual look at the strengths and weaknesses of your manuscript.
I'll admit that it sounds convoluted and pretty confusing. I had to reread the directions multiple times before I got it, but once I understood what I was supposed to be doing, it finally clicked. Once you've eliminated all page breaks and reduced the font to something ridiculous, you're supposed to locate your strong chapters, your dialogue heavy scenes, etc. From everything I read, the shrunken manuscript is adaptable to what you are looking for.
That sounds like a pain in the ass.
 |
| Phoenix Rising, shrunken. |
Since Phoenix Rising is a multiple POV book, I wanted to make sure that all my key players had equal face time with the reader. My two main characters needed to own the majority of the scenes and my secondary ones couldn't upstage them.
I color-coded my POV characters and my dialogue-heavy scenes***. Halfway through the first act, I encountered a problem. I had a fifth POV. I knew four was pushing it, but FIVE? I hurried back to my key and added my fifth character color code, denoted by a grey P. (I had run out of highlighters.) Then I backtracked to incorporate the added POV.
In my head everything seemed cool, but the shrunken manuscript does not lie.
 |
| The key with a hastily added "P." |
- I suffered from a sagging middle.
- Pike disappears for the entire second act and is barely visible in the third, but is super-important in the first.
- Walker's POV is much stronger than Kyla's.
- I had only two dialogue-heavy scenes!
Interesting. How did this change your revision plan?
With such a heavy focus on Pike in act one, I knew I had to carry that through the rest of the novel. This was an easy fix by eliminating what I discovered was a SIXTH POV and throwing those scenes in Pike's POV. It tightened up the middle a bit as well.
And since I was already aware of my crap middle, I put extra focus on strengthening those plot points. Things push along better now with some much needed development on the subplot frontier. Walker's POV is still stronger than Kyla's, but I think that's okay for now. Their combined story works better that way I think.
Will you shrink again?
Most definitely. As I get older, I'm discovering that I'm very much the visual learner. I think doing it so early in the revision process eliminated several drafts. What's awesome is that I can tailor my focus with each go-round as well.
What new techniques have you tried prior to a big revision?
Also! I'm giving away a Circa Starter Kit. You have until Sunday to enter.
* Remember, Alicia + titling = literary disasterpiece.
** The last beta read from Hubby was problematic because it wasn't something he was jazzed about.
*** Being the dialogue-loving whore I am, I fully anticipated every other page to be all dialogue.
____________
Last.fm hit of the day: Presence by Anathema