Finalmente, I’m through the developmental revisions. In retrospect it’s pretty funny I thought there was a chance I’d be finished with them in May, and that it was a forgone conclusion they’d be wrapped in June. Nevertheless, July 4th I got it done. I thought I’d spend some time talking about the craft, and why they took me so much longer than I was anticipating.
The processes of applying the revisions from the editor’s notes/edits chapter to chapter are independent of each other. The factors determining the difficulty associated with a chapter’s revisions are typically: POV, narrative restructuring, and explication restructuring. POV tends to overlap with the other two in different ways.
Explication restructuring was the most prevalent of the work throughout the manuscript. On some level it needed to be done in every chapter. I touched on it in a previous Progress Report, but this largely involved replacing surplus dialogue with explication from the narrator (POV character). This was the easiest to work through, because it primarily just meant recontexualizing the same information into a way that’s more digestible for the reader. I also consider adding more prosaic elements in the manuscript a part of explication restructuring, since the prose-work available is dictated by the narrator of the moment. Making the writing more prosaic is also about tweaking or expanding on what’s already on the page. All of this to say, if a chapter largely just requires explication restructuring, I’m more likely to get through its revisions in the same day that I begin them.
Narrative restructuring is an entirely different beast. This involves changing the sequencing of events that happen, sometimes within a chapter, sometimes across chapters. It might entail recontenxtualizing events not just from dialogue to internal explication, but from one POV to another; which is not very far removed from writing something for the first time. Sometimes I might even want to completely change a scene or setting, and I’m literally writing raw material. Occasionally, if a chapter is relatively short (~10 pages) there’s a chance I can work through it the same day, but on balance it’ll take 2 days if a lot of narrative restructuring is required.
And not every POV is built the same. Of the five POV characters throughout TFC, two of them come naturally/easily to write/ revise, two of them I find extremely difficult, and one is just fine. My aim is to give each POV a unique voice to align with their unique perspectives. At the line level this might mean 2 characters speak and think in broken grammar, but uniquely broken grammar. For example, one might say “He wasn’t no good.” and the other “He weren’t no good.” (That’s an extremely crude example, but if there’s this sort of delineation in dialect it needs to be consistent throughout the manuscript.) It could mean that one POV notices things that another won’t, or fails to notice things the others would. Writing each character provides its own challenges, a couple of them just have more than the rest.
Occasionally, a chapter requires narrative and explication restructuring. Sometimes, it requires both for one of the more challenging POVs. And still, it’s possible (it happened) I’ll run into a chapter where I encounter all 3 of these, and it’s also the longest chapter in the manuscript! So, while Parts II and III of the manuscript were generally a touch cleaner in terms of the explication restructuring that needed to be ironed out, the narrative restructuring and the POVs where it was needed led to a much more extensive process than I’d anticipated. Which is okay. There are no extra points earned for rushing out shoddy work.
As for what’s next, although I’m technically finished with the developmental revisions, I’m going to use today, the 7th, to do some last minute fine tuning and quality control across the manuscript. There is one scene in the first third of the manuscript that I want to do some narrative restructuring in, and have some foreshadowing I’d like to sprinkle in, but frankly I don’t have the bandwidth at the moment. So those things will get done while I’m applying the line revisions. What exactly will those entail? I’ll let you all know when I do. In the meantime, while the manuscript undergoes line edits, and before picking work back up on TFC’s sequel or the contemporary novel, I’m taking some time to read, play video games, and gear up for a (hopeful) move.
I’m currently reading 2666 from Robert Bolaño. I’m about 2/5ths of the way through it and it’s fantastic. I’ll more to say here once I’m through it. Also on the docket are Wolf Hall from Hilary Mantel, Minor Detail from Adania Shibli, and George Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia. I’m a decently quick reader, although I’m expecting to annotate at least three of these four and possibly all four, so we’ll see how fast I’m able to burn through them.
As for games I’ll be playing, I’m extremely excited for College Football 25. So much so that I think I’m planning to buy a used Xbox or PlayStation. My very paltry understanding of the two is that for some reason the PS5 is superior, but I believe most of my friends have an Xbox. So, I’ll probably be going with that one. Persona 5 Royal has also been highly recommended, so I’ll be playing that on the real game system (Switch).
Other than that, it’s much ado of the same. Learning Spanish and playing basketball in my free time, which I find becoming increasingly infrequent. That’s a good thing though, I enjoy having things to do. At the latest, I’ll be back with the July Update. Will it be on time? Anyone’s guess.