Revising

[caecilia]

Sorry if this is too rambly. I'm in a university Fiction workshop, and I have absolutely loathed my story from day one. My biggest problem is that it has no plot. I've always felt that if I'm not feeling something, I turn the page in my notebook open a new tab in Scrivener and start from square one. I usually do this several times when I'm starting a story (and in fact, the "first draft" that I submitted is technically a third draft). But for the purposes of this class, my story has to very clearly be a revised version of the first draft, and not an "entirely unrelated" story. Personally, I'm not sure how anyone can tell that, since little changes add up and the story is meant to evolve. For my second draft, I started from the beginning and wrote basically the same thing but with a change in tone and style. I was thinking for my third draft, I could start with putting my characters in a different situation and have something happen to them, but now I'm not sure if that will be "too different".

My professor's comments on my second draft say that I need to flesh it out, but I'm struggling with how to go about this (and it's not my prof's job to walk me through it), and honestly my workshop group is really unhelpful.

So, I'm turning to you guys (as well as e-mailing the prof). What is your revising process like? When a story just isn't working, is there any way to revive it without doing a complete re-write? Do you always have to start from scratch like I do, or is there a better process for going through piece by piece and transforming the story? Specifically, have you ever written something completely void of action and had to somehow inject the plot into what you already wrote? I often go back while I'm writing and tweak/add/move little details around, but I'm at a loss at how to do this with something that's been sitting for a while, without, y'know. Starting over.

Comments

[agilebrit]

I'm not sure what you mean by "it has no plot."

When I sit down to plan something out, I start with the character and what he wants. The "plot" is all the obstacles in his path to getting that, and how he overcomes them (or doesn't, depending on the story) in the end. A lot of people mistake "stuff happens" for "plot," but that's not technically how it works. "Plot" is the decisions and choices the character makes.

You said "have something happen to them," but the important part is what they do about that thing that happens.

I had this issue with one of my stories. It wasn't that it had no plot, it was that the plot was broken. Stuff happened to my character, but he didn't make anything happen--he was carried along by events and reacted the entire time rather than acting. And in order to fix that, I basically had to re-write the entire thing from about midway through to the end. It was much improved thereby.

If you're a discovery writer rather than an outliner, that may be part of your issue. I use the Seven Point Structure for outlining, and it's stood me in good stead, but it doesn't always save me.

I hope that helped.

[caecilia]

I guess what I mean is there's no driving force. Nothing changes for the characters, and there's no development. I know it's possible to have a slice of life story, and most literary fiction focuses on character's feelings than "stuff happening", but those still need to have some rising and falling action, and this doesn't have any. It feels very stagnant to me. My professor's word for it was "passive", if that helps to clarify.

I'm not much of an outliner, but I do a lot of mental processing and visualization before putting the words down, and often in the middle of writing. It seems your link is broken, but I googled Seven Point Structure and this looks really helpful! I'll definitely be applying it when I start my next draft. I'm still worried that it'll be too "different" from the original but... the original has so many problems, it needs to be changed significantly if I have any hope of improving it.

Thanks! I think this will be helpful.

[agilebrit]

Argh, that's what I get for not checking the link--apparently a random DW thing got pasted in there for some reason. Try this.

I think I get where you're coming from as far as "the characters don't change." However, that's okay--as long as they learn something along the way. Dorothy ends up right back where she started in The Wizard of Oz, so it doesn't look like a change until you analyze it--but she figured out that it's exactly where she wants to be in the first place. So maybe look at it from that perspective?

[caecilia]

This one works, thanks!

Honestly, in both drafts, they don't really learn anything either. But I'll keep that in mind as something I can have happen in my next draft, which right now is looking like it is going to be another drastically different re-write. I'm just not sure how to change one important thing without having to rebuild everything! Ugh, sorry if I sound like I'm all over the place right now. I'm thankful for the advice and I think I'll be referring back to this post's comments as I work, as a guideline for what to focus on.

[inkdust]

I think you might try focusing on this point. If your main issue is that the story feels passive, as you said, and your characters are too reactionary, then one of the things that they're reacting to needs to change them.

I used to fall into the trap of starting over and rewriting, but I know that tactic will only ever give me another rough draft. I'm currently doing major revisions, and I'm basically looking at every scene and plot point and asking myself, "Is this the best thing to have happen here, for the overarching plot?" and then, "Is this the best way to have this thing happen?" Sometimes it feels like I'm turning my brain inside out trying to look at it a different way, but I already know this draft is so much stronger.

If you're struggling because there are more interesting stories you'd rather write, tell yourself you'll get to those later. Once you work this one out you can move on, and I bet you'll learn some good stuff from doing it.