The Past, the Present, and the Very Near Future
The editing is in full-swing now. I have no idea whether this will be of any interest to anyone, but since this is supposed to be a blog about the editing process, I suppose I should, for once, talk about the editing process. Most of this will be nonsensical if you haven't read the book...
My editor pointed out a flaw in the book that I knew existed but had been too cowardly to attack, mostly because fixing it would involve a month's worth of work, and the potential for creating bigger problems in attempting to fix a smaller one was very high.
This was the flaw: In the first section of the book I have a scene which, because of it's length, is broken up into chunks. In between the chunks, I flashback to some scenes in one of the character's lives. This is all very appropriate, as there are parallels between what is happening in the present and the past.
The problem comes, however, because I'm also inserting these "flash-forwards" in the section. In my book, there are dual universes--there is the real-life present of the characters in my book; and then there is also the present of this online fantasy game that they are playing. Things can happen in the game while the characters are away from their computers; in essence creating dual presents in the same book.
This sounds very confusing, written out, but in most sections of the book it's fairly seemless to the reader. Everything is written in the present and time only passes when I say something like "an hour passes in The Realm" or "two days later X____ wakes up with his Chuck Taylors still on his feet"
In this one section, however, it really doesn't work, because there is the present, the flashback in the past, and game sections scattered throughout that actually take place about 12 hours in the future. The reader loses all track of what is happening when...
Anyway... I finally braved it. Following my editors suggestions, I essentially took out all the game stuff and put it after the scene, leaving the flashbacks in, but shortening the whole segment a tad (although, not as much as I my editor suggested). This, of course, had repurcussions throughout, as I then had to weave the happenings of the Game into other segments later on. This had effects as far-reaching as 150 pages down the road.
I still don't know how any of this reads. At the end of all these edits I'm going to have to read the book straight through, and see how the timing turned out. I have a feeling its' going to be very wonky, at which point I'll have to tackle this issue again.
My editor pointed out a flaw in the book that I knew existed but had been too cowardly to attack, mostly because fixing it would involve a month's worth of work, and the potential for creating bigger problems in attempting to fix a smaller one was very high.
This was the flaw: In the first section of the book I have a scene which, because of it's length, is broken up into chunks. In between the chunks, I flashback to some scenes in one of the character's lives. This is all very appropriate, as there are parallels between what is happening in the present and the past.
The problem comes, however, because I'm also inserting these "flash-forwards" in the section. In my book, there are dual universes--there is the real-life present of the characters in my book; and then there is also the present of this online fantasy game that they are playing. Things can happen in the game while the characters are away from their computers; in essence creating dual presents in the same book.
This sounds very confusing, written out, but in most sections of the book it's fairly seemless to the reader. Everything is written in the present and time only passes when I say something like "an hour passes in The Realm" or "two days later X____ wakes up with his Chuck Taylors still on his feet"
In this one section, however, it really doesn't work, because there is the present, the flashback in the past, and game sections scattered throughout that actually take place about 12 hours in the future. The reader loses all track of what is happening when...
Anyway... I finally braved it. Following my editors suggestions, I essentially took out all the game stuff and put it after the scene, leaving the flashbacks in, but shortening the whole segment a tad (although, not as much as I my editor suggested). This, of course, had repurcussions throughout, as I then had to weave the happenings of the Game into other segments later on. This had effects as far-reaching as 150 pages down the road.
I still don't know how any of this reads. At the end of all these edits I'm going to have to read the book straight through, and see how the timing turned out. I have a feeling its' going to be very wonky, at which point I'll have to tackle this issue again.
posted by bigdumbjim at 10:02
1 Comments:
Hey Jim, don't forget to fall in love with your editor in his or her own way. I read a lot of acknowledgements, I think they tell me a lot about the writer, and the writers knowledge and presence within the book. It also tells me his purpose and therefore is the book worth my time or not. love you little writers Angel
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