L'Engle justifies my revision madness
As with all my books, Starfish was more rewritten than written, and with each subsequent book the need to rewrite becomes more rather than less. As the writer struggles to grow in knowledge of techniques, characterization, theme, more and more work becomes necessary.
--Madeleine L'Engle, Walking on Water
Thank you! I thought I was just growing more and more incompetent with each book. The final version of Voice of Crow was 25% brand-new material; the final version of Wicked Game, 35%.
I'm already tearing apart The Reawakened, and anticipate much more bulldozing to come both before and after I turn it in to my editor. I doubt even half of what's currently written will remain standing at publication.
Make that a quarter, or a fifth.
Hmm, I could go for a fifth of something right now, just thinking about it...
Labels: craft, The Reawakened, vampire series, Voice of Crow
6 Comments:
Unless my math is even worse than I think it is, I wind up adding around 14% in revisions, which puts us in the same ballpark.
Posted by:
Ann Aguirre at 9/13/2007 11:41 AM
So if I'm adding 35% and coming up with a net of -10%, that means I'm cutting nearly half the original material. None of it's wasted work, though--part of figuring out what works is figuring out what doesn't.
Posted by:
Jeri at 9/13/2007 12:12 PM
Posted by:
Ann Aguirre at 9/13/2007 7:03 PM
Posted by:
Jeri at 9/13/2007 8:02 PM
Posted by:
Ann Aguirre at 9/13/2007 9:39 PM
Posted by:
Jeri at 9/13/2007 10:45 PM
Post a Comment