Friday, January 6, 2012

Aspiring Advice: Dusting Your Shelved MS

 
When you leave a book on a shelve and never touch it, it's going to get dusty. Same goes for any stationary knickknack. Fact of life. But maybe you've written something a while ago that you'd like to see published one day? For whatever reason, you decided to put it away and work on something else. Time has passed and you've learned new skills. You feel confident that you can fix whatever problems lie within your shelved MS.

Hold on. Don't jump into revision mode just yet. The longer your MS was sitting, the more dust its collected. Open it too fast and that dust will fly everywhere.

Your writing has improved since you put it away. No matter what, the old stuff will be messy in comparison to your recent work. There's no doubt you have a great story. Maybe the presentation needs work. Maybe the plot elements don't flow as well as you once thought. Whatever the issue, jumping right in might overwhelm and tempt you to shelf it again for who knows how long.

How can we avoid this dusty revision aversion? Here's a few ideas that might help you get passed that grimy layer that's keeping you from that desired rewrite.

Reacquaint Yourself - Approach the MS like a long lost friend. Sometimes we see how much we've changed compared to others who may not have changed at all. Similarly, your MS has not changed (if it has, you may have some revision gnomes - if so, can I have one?).


Read It - Pick it up (or print it out) and start reading, chapter by chapter. This could be the most painful experience your brain and/or ego has ever endured. Don't let it get to you. The more you cringe, the more you've improved. Learn of yourself. You might even gain a better appreciation for what agents go through.


Red It Up - After you've read a chapter, go through it again with a red pen. Remember, this isn't the editing stage. This is Pre-Manuscript Surgery (like marking where to make the incisions for later). Focus on what screams at you. Take notes on the side or between the lines. Bracket paragraphs that don't work. Highlight keeper lines that need to move elsewhere. Don't cut stuff out completely. You could reuse some of it.

Make The Choice - By the end, you will fall in love with your MS again or feel totally uninspired. If you're in love, your old MS is now prepped and ready for many long hours of editing. If it's not working for you at all, maybe it's not time to revise it yet. And maybe, just maybe, there's nothing you can do to fix it. That's a choice you have to make. Revise or move on to something new.

This is not the rule, just my thoughts on the matter. I have three novels, a trilogy, that will likely never see the light of day. Reader's have told me "that was a waste of five pages" and "you have some neat ideas, but your presentation is deplorable." This was after nine revisions. I could have taken offense to this and given up. Instead, I took it as an invitation to move on to new projects. Best writerly decision I've ever made.

No matter how dusty your shelved MS might be, there's something almost magical about picking up a book that you wrote and finished a long time ago. If you have one, maybe it's time to get reacquainted. Bring a duster.

Do you have a shelved MS? Do you plan to revise it someday? What has helped you wipe away the dust?

I'm David, and a Happy Birthday to Mr. Holmes!

36 comments:

  1. Oh, jeez...I have so many MS shelved and gathering dust. Will I go back and re-edit? A few recent ones, most deffinately. Most of the older? No. They were practise runs, something to boost the feeling of achievement when I look back over them...

    ReplyDelete
  2. I have one novel that I'm really excited about but needed to be shelved for the time being. My plan is to finish my current novels and short stories, then go back and see if it is as fun as I remember.

    ReplyDelete
  3. It's funny you wrote this post today because just yesterday I was looking at one of my shelved MS. And, you know, I remembered it being a lot better than it actually was. But I still love the story so someday, I'll get back to it and make it what it should be. Some day.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I had one MS that got tossed into the digital nethers. Seriously, it was necessary.

    I do have one shelved MS, a fantasy, one that I may take a look at again one day. Not today. But one day soon. One of the great things about the fantasy one is that I have a nice world built up so even if I don't go with the MS that's written, I have the option to toss that MS and go a whole other route.

    Yeah to options :-)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Great post. I have/had four shelved novels. Three are a trilogy, which may never be revised--they were the first novels I ever wrote. The fourth was much more recent and got good responses from agents, but they said the market wasn't there. So it "sat on a shelf" for a couple of years. I picked it up about a year ago and re-polished it. It's making the agent rounds again. Hopefully, the market's better...

    ReplyDelete
  6. I had a VERY old dusty manuscript. I completely rewrote it, because while the storyline sucked (along with the writing) the characters were good. That story became CassaStar.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Is there like a camera or something in my house like the Truman Show? *looks around* I've got dusty ms in my lap right now. And oh my gosh I'm going through all the, 'ugh' and cringe worthy emotions, it makes me want to pull out recent wip just so I can feel better about my writing.

    But I like what you said. The more you cringe, the more you've improved. Whew. That does make me feel better about reading it.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Good post. One of my goals is to go back to my SciFi, which was the second project I worked on BEFORE I actually did any editing (and started learning so much about writing). I still love the story and have decided to try and make it a trilogy. But I'm sure it'll be cringe worthy.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I noticed this when I went back to a manuscript I'd let sit for almost a year. I saw all kinds of things that I thought could be worded better. So you are right on the money with this. Distance also gives you valuable perspective. When you let it sit for so long, it's like you are critiquing someone else's work and not your own.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I love that: the more your cringe, the more you've improved. SO TRUE.

    I do have some old ms. We'll see how dusty they get :)

    ReplyDelete
  11. I have SO many on my shelves. Some of them scary me a little (they're so bad), but others totally bring a smile to my face. I hope to clean those up better in time.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I think you wrote this just for me :)

    I'm not at the 'pull it out, dust it off' stage yet, but I'm thinking it might happen sometime this year :)

    ReplyDelete
  13. I did this with my first MS, except I extracted the idea and started over. I did keep the main characters but the rest of the terrible writing went bye, bye.

    Oh, and Happy Birthday Holmes. Love ya. Maybe I'll go see the movie this weekend in your honor.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Great tips David! I am nowhere near brave enough to pick up any of my old MS's. In fact, I know my current MS needs a lot of polishing, so hopefully I can manage that one first. However... when the time comes that I want to pull one of the old babies off the shelf, I will take your advice! And if you find a revision gnome, can I borrow it?

    ReplyDelete
  15. Where do I sign up to get a revision gnome? :)

    ReplyDelete
  16. I'm not good about just marking for later. I always just cut deep too quickly. Then, it dies.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Hi, David,

    Happy New Year, buddy... I know it's been ages since I dropped by, but I am so glad I did today..

    Such a WONDERFUL post! You really have such a simple and effective way to approach this issue. I am sure MOST of us have shelved our first, second, or third novel.

    I have, my first. I left it for a while because after two years of constant revisions, restructuring, and cutting the word count in half, it was time for a break.

    Many have enjoyed it and encouraged me to get it back out there. I did and found that although the editors loved my lyrical writing, and the basic storyline, there were some issues that needed to be corrected in the first few chapters.

    I wrote my second novel. I am now querying it. I just received the best rejection a writer could get. The editor finished the novel even though she knew it wasn't right for them. Wow.

    I am going to the SCBWI conference in NYC at the end of the month and hopefully there I will pitch it to right agent/editor.

    As for my first, I definitely want to go back and "dust" it off using your suggestions.

    WIshing you the best in 2012!

    ReplyDelete
  18. I've shelved three. Actually, one I'm throwing away completely because it's so bad... But I really want to go back to two of my books and rewrite or revise or whatever. I know for a fact that they'll be a TON of work. I have to do it when I'm ready. And right now, I'm not ready. It would stress me right out.

    Thanks for the great post! :D

    ReplyDelete
  19. I want a revision gnome!

    My first novel has been shelved for quite some time now. I've pulled it out a few times, worked on it a bit, and put it back. Recently I pulled it out again.

    I'll just have to see how long I work on it this time. The good thing is I still love the novel. The bad thing is I'm not able to fix the problems yet. I've got a couple interested beta readers to help though :)

    .......dhole

    ReplyDelete
  20. I wrote quite a bit in my 20s-early 30s. It went from total crap to mediocre at best. I threw a bunch of that stuff away in a fit of anger.

    So I don't have a whole lot of stuff collecting dust!

    ReplyDelete
  21. I shelved my first novel, never to be re-opened (well, not any time soon). I loved the characters and the story, but they didn't fit together very well and I didn't have the skill to fix the problems. I'm not sure I have the skill now either!

    ReplyDelete
  22. Such great advice! Oh, I have a revision gnome, doesn't everybody? That's the only way I can explain the "hey, this is better than I remembered" feeling. :)

    ReplyDelete
  23. Ironically enough, I just recently picked up an old manuscript that needed to be finished actually, and I'm actually getting into it! My goal is to get done by February, but when I reread the last chapter, I cringed at certain parts, and loved some others...it will definitely be worth my time! :)

    ReplyDelete
  24. The whole cringe thing is definitely true. It shows that you're at least aware that your ms can be improved.

    Great post!

    ReplyDelete
  25. I'm afraid to look at the dust on my books. I think it might be quite frightening!

    ReplyDelete
  26. This is a good post. When I looked at my first ms, I cringed at almost every page and laughed at how naive I was about writing. Thanks for the reminder.

    ReplyDelete
  27. That's some great advice. I don't have any shelved manuscripts, but I do have revisions in my future and your post gives me some ideas on how to start. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  28. Nice timing on this--I've spent the last week planning on a massive re-write of an old MS. I don't think I can handle going back and reading the old one (it just might kill me), but I'm totally getting stoked to give this story another go!

    ReplyDelete
  29. I have a few I've been meaning to dust off. I'm just not there yet. =)

    ReplyDelete
  30. Great post! I have a bunch of novels stored away, most of which never went further than the rough draft. I'm starting to wonder if they may be real gems worth brushing the dust off for. If one of them gets published, you're totally going into my acknowledgement section. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  31. I’ve ripped one half-done MS to bits so much that only a handful of the original characters and the core story actually got used. The rest was all fluff which got deleted along the way.
    I love it so much more now. ^_^

    But yes, there are still others lurking on my hard-drive, waiting to be revived. I’ve every intention of getting back to them. But that’s behind two other stories and a revision of another three, so “when” is the question for which I have no answer.

    ReplyDelete
  32. I actually don't have a shelved MS, I only have a long lost one that I wrote in high school, and our computer crashed, and I lost EVERYTHING! But I will never go back to it. I don't even remember it anymore, it's been too long, although the names of characters and places seem to creep into other stories though.

    ReplyDelete
  33. This is great advice, and timely too. That first finished novel that never went anywhere has been calling my name recently. It was so wonderful, way back when. I'm a little scared to go back and see if it still is.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Because I only have one WiP that I'm constantly prioritizing, I have four WiPs on the shelf. And I do read them every time before I work on them.

    The only difference is that if I find that they need too much work, I actually rewrite the thing from scratch and then start with revisions. I find that this way cuts through the crap much faster.

    :-)

    ReplyDelete
  35. I don't really have any shelved novels, as in "once upon a time, way back when, I decided this was crap and that I would never look at it again." All the old novels I have, I still intend to get back to at some point. I haven't yet learned the fine art of shelving crappy old work.

    This blog post was great!

    ReplyDelete
  36. Hey David,
    Love your blog. I found you via my CP - Cassie Cook. She's awesome :)
    I have a few MS on the go. All YA. And one I spent almost two years on ( on and off ) and have shelved it for the time being. I will return, but for now my muse hit me with another idea and I want to work on something fresh. Look forward to following you.
    My blog is: http://www.dreamwritepublish.blogspot.co.nz/ Would love it if you'd follow me. I'm new to this new cyber world :)
    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete