Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Revising the Day Away

I returned from Missouri with many suggestions for improving my two works-in-progress. The amount of work involved is daunting, but I know where to start. One person expressed a logical concern about driving around Chicago, the time of day and the places my characters would stop. That’s an easy technical fix – with Google Maps’ assistance. The suggestions that are harder to implement involve deepening the emotional impact of the novels. I need to bare my soul and bear my characters’ souls.

One of Jennifer Mattson’s talks included a section on broadening characters’ reactions to emotion. She listed five possibilities.

1. Sensual reaction inside the body (for example, heart rate)
2. Sensual reaction outside the body (jittery leg)
3. Emotional flashes from past (remembering a past experience)
4. Emotional flashes from future (concern about something that may happen)
5. Sensual selectivity (focusing on a specific sight, sound, etc. to heighten emotion)

I have the manuscripts; I have the tools; I have no more excuses.

1 comment:

TimInMich said...

"The amount of work involved is daunting, but I know where to start."
That must be a relief. That's one of the most valuable things that readers of our ms's can provide us -- starting points, or what I call "a way in" to the dense undergrowth that our novel can become when we're deep inside it.
I really like to revise, but I know I'm often going about it backwards. The key is, as in this workshop, MANUSCRIPT revision. I gotta ease up on the chapter and paragraph and sentence revision at this point.
Thanks for reporting on this!