Revising “The 29th Day” … the saga continues
The past couple of weeks has been quite intense in terms of work and getting ready for the end of school & the holiday season. The good thing is that when I finally have time to sit down with The 29th Day, I have a very definite sense of what I need to do in my final round of revisions.
When I started writing The 29th Day, I did not know how many words a typical novel would be in a word document. Terry Fallis told me that he had aimed for 100,000 words when writing The Best Laid Plans [incidentally, The Best Laid Plan's sequel, The High Road will be published by McLelland and Stewart in September 2010 - that's something to look forward to!]. For my first novel, I found it very helpful to have a benchmark so I would know when I was finished, so I aimed for 100,000 words. My second version of The 29th Day ended up at 114,000 words and certain reviewers felt that I went on for too long in certain parts.
One thing that was quite interesting is that my mom was very critical of The 29th Day. Yet, when I excerpted parts and re-framed them into short submissions for the CBC literary awards, she really liked them. On a whim, I submitted parts of the book to each of the three categories (poetry, creative non-fiction and short story). This is probably not likely to result in a winning submission – I think again of Claire Battershill’s submission and how much she fit into 2500 words – but it was still extremely valuable to my development as a writer. The word limit of 2500 words really forced me to be more economical with my language and to realize how much extraneous verbiage I could cut without losing any meaning. Regardless of the outcome of the awards (shortlist to be announced in the second week of February), this process has shown me how important this process of “polishing” is to a reader’s enjoyment of a piece of writing (my apologies and thanks to my first round of reviewers!).
I am now polishing and trying to cut The 29th Day back to 100,000 words, which still strikes me as being a reasonable length for the story [I recently found out that publishers tend to like books between 70-90,000 words, which is perhaps easier for the author - so I will aim for that length for Viral Hatred!]. Right now I am at about 107,000 words. It is actually really fun to see concepts become clearer as I refine my word usage. It does feel like “polishing” … and I hope that I have a fine gem at the end.
Feedback from my reviewers and contacts with various authors and agents over the past few months has been very helpful to me in finalizing The 29th Day. My first version of the book had a number of interactive components (where the narrator directly addressed the reader) and two endings that the reader could choose between.
Most of my initial readers did not mind the interactive elements but some found them annoying, or even distracting from the narrative – they were reminded throughout that they were not in the story and that they were just reading. I have recently decided to dispense with the parts of the book that directly address the reader, except in the prologue.
The dual endings were integral to the book as I had conceived of it four years ago. At the time, I was really more interested in my own writing and what I wanted to say rather than what a person would find enjoyable to read. This has changed. My friends liked the concept, but some were unsettled by not knowing what really happened. All the readers read both endings and the majority preferred one of the endings. I was leaning towards choosing one of the endings when I asked an agent for advice and, though it took some time to accept, his comment solidified for me that I needed to substantially revise the end of the book. I am very fortunate to have had this advice.
Over the past couple of weeks, with my partner’s help, I have come up with a new concept that will tie the beginning to the end. It will also make the bigger point I am trying to make about climate change. I think readers (including my initial reviewers) will find the new concept more satisfying than the one I started out with.
Also, I liked the afterword in Don LePan’s book, Animals, and have decided to include a short essay on climate change at the end of The 29th Day. I am concerned about the nature of the dialogue/lack of substantive progress at the Copenhagen Climate Conference and am aware of a couple of new books – one by Lester Brown of the Worldlwatch institute, referred to in my earlier posting, and another by James Hansen, a scientist who was interviewed on CBC a couple of days ago about his book Storms of my Grandchildren). Given that I have my hands full with work, my kids and finishing the story, I have not yet worked out exactly what I would want to say in a non-fiction format … but, I think I can work on that after I submit the manuscript to agents and publishers. Ideally, it would be included in the book, but it could also be a companion essay – there for people who want to know more about the issues I am drawing attention to though the The 29th Day ( I only skim the surface of the issues because I want my novel to be an easy read with a strong narrative pull to the conclusion). So, that’s the plan!
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Hi Evadne,
Very interesting process you’ve described. it sounds to me as if you’re on the right track. Good luck with your polishing. By the way, I’ve not forgotten about your thoughtful interview questions. I’m working on them…
Ter
Thanks Terry! It is so funny how every writer has their own way of doing things … the process I describe above would be agonizing for some, but I am enjoying it. It is a little nerve wracking to be changing substantive parts of the manuscript so late in the process, but I think I tried to put too many concepts into one book. I now feel fairly certain that I will write other novels, so I am not as anxious to cram everything into “The 29th Day.”
I finished reworking the end of “The 29th Day” this evening and have about 6 substantive points that I need to address in the plot, on top of the polishing. I am very hopeful that it will be ready to submit to an agent early in the new year … if I can force myself to stop revising the text!