July 29, 2006
I just finished rewriting chapters 46 and 47 in ANGELS FALLING--they were short--and in the process, I reversed them. Now they're, well... I added a chapter earlier in the rewrite, so 47 actually stayed 47, and 46 became chapter 48.

It was right there scribbled in light blue felt pen in the margin: consider flipping 46 & 47.

So, in my rewrite today, I flipped them...

Then I unflipped them...

Then I made a little change at the end of one of them and flipped them back.

Welcome to rewriting.

I know when I was writing the first draft to THE DEVIL'S PITCHFORK I got to a point where I didn't like where the novel was going, so I backed up, deleted a couple chapters, rewrote them, didn't like them, went back and rewrote the earlier versions, didn't like that, futsed with a couple other ideas that didn't work, then went with the modified versions of the earlier chapters.

And during the final re-write I moved a couple chapters around. And one of my editors suggested I changed a couple chapters. And in the final, final rewrite my titles editor, Wade, suggested I flip two chapters, and after some pondering, did.

I didn't use to do this. I used to be pretty confident in the direction of my story and the nature of my decisions. But the better I get, the more second-guessing I seem to do.

I've described it before as being like playing chess with myself. I'm thinking 5 or 6 moves ahead, trying to figure out where each move will take the story. The problem is, each move can lead to multiple options and choices that affect the story... I'm not sure if outlining would help or not. I'd probably do the same damned thing on an outline.

This is a particularly insidious problem with multiple viewpoint novels like the ones I write. I have a main character, and if possible I want him to be in every other chapter. That was the nature of the additional chapter earlier in ANGELS, because I felt the story went too long without Derek, so I added a short chapter.

When I get to the very end of this rewrite, I need to get some sort of idea of the full sweep and pace of the story and that's going to require me reading it straight through and paying attention to how I feel... will the reader want Derek here? Is your attention wandering? Is it because you've re-written this story 10 times or because the section doesn't work well enough? Or it doesn't work where it's supposed to.

It's the toughest part about writing novels--not knowing if what you're doing is working.

Best,
Mark Terry