We’re in the third and final Mercury Retrograde of 2022, so of course this means it’s time to retreat from the world for the next three weeks and dive deep into the next step of novel-writing: Review!
I don’t know for a fact that review is everyone’s next step. I just know it’s my next step after a summer of workshopping MODEL RICANS in a UCLA Extension Novel IV class with Mark Sarvas.
If you are a writer, and you want to follow along, here’s my Review Schedule:
Week 1 — Sept 12-18: Reverse-Outlining, Distilling Notes/Feedback from Classmates, and Reviewing Past Journals
These are three things I don’t spend a lot of time on because I’m so busy getting lost in the weeds, so I’m going to spend this first week NOT writing and just reviewing and preparing for Weeks 2 and 3 of this Mercury Retrograde Novel Rewriting Review.
- Reverse-Outlining: I’ve started reverse-outlining the whole story at the top of a draft I am calling “Model Ricans for Developmental Editor.” It’s all starting to look coherent, but there are still some parts that are fuzzy and/or perhaps unnecessary or over-complicated. This is where a spreadsheet comes in. It’s one of the coolest things I learned in Mark’s class. The spreadsheet lists all the chapters and scenes on a Y-axis and all the necessary elements for a novel on the X-axis like Hook, Theme, Subtext, Stakes, Conflict, Immediacy, Tension. While I review/rewrite in weeks 2 and 3, I will be checking off whether or not each scene is accomplishing these necessary tasks so the reader feels compelled to keep turning pages.
- Distilling Notes: It’s really easy to ignore what people say in workshops, and just move forward the way I normally would. But then…what’s the point of workshopping if I don’t listen and/or take their feedback into consideration? In film school, I was notorious for ignoring feedback, and sure, my professors appreciated that I didn’t give a flying fuck what they thought or what my classmates thought, but that quality also prevented me from growing. So, I have a second tab on the spreadsheet that lists all the peeps who gave feedback, their specific demographic lens, and the notes they provided that I will apply to my next draft.
- Reviewing Journals: The last thing I want to do is review all my journals from the time periods I’m writing about. This is my “secret sauce” as an author. Unlike many writers who are trying to use their memories, I literally kept journals capturing the scenes, the characters, and the emotional states I was in during all my travels. It’s really a special collection to have, and I owe it to myself to fully retrograde to those moments in order to further fill out my novel with rich descriptions.
Week 2 — Sept 19-25: Reviewing and Rewriting the middle of the book
I know I will need more than a week to review and rewrite the whole middle section of the book, but for purposes of this Mercury Retrograde exercise, I will give myself one week. Another thing I learned in Mark’s class is to just get through the draft, even if scenes are still not fully fleshed out with all checkmarks checked off. There will be so many more rewrites and edits after a developmental editor goes through it, there’s no need to trip over it so much at this stage. So instead of thinking I will have a “polished” novel at the end of this Mercury Retrograde, I want to think instead — I will have a “good enough” version of the novel to send to a developmental editor. Woot! Right there is progress. Pat on the back for me for finally slowing down.
Week 3 — Sept 26-Oct 2: Reviewing and Rewriting the end of the book
It is very clear to me at this point how my book ends, but there may be too many plot points on the way there. That was feedback I got from the literary agent of my dreams on THE NINE LIVES OF MARIA LA GATA. As I review the MODEL RICANS outline, I see too many plot points might be an issue again. At least I’m consistent! So…should I start cutting? At the moment, I’m thinking I should keep everything so I can fully understand the WHOLE story, which maybe a developmental editor will need to see as well before making suggestions on which ones I can cut to create more TENSION. Ooh, wow. I’ve learned so much! Yesssssss!
OK! By the end of this three-week journey, I will have a draft ready for a developmental editor.