Ripping Out Stitches
I love to knit. This is somewhat of a revelation to me, since I am the LEAST crafty person I know. My mother is this utterly amazing knitter, and she has helped me to learn. Now, I find myself wandering the aisles of Ben Franklin, and one entire wall of my walk-in closet is yarn. One WALL! I get Yarn Lust. I hate to shop, yet a trip to Ben Franklin can take me two hours. My clothes? Order them online. My makeup? I order it online. I mean, I SERIOUSLY hate shopping. Except for yarn.
When I started knitting, I HATED to rip anything out. I was just so happy I had stitches on my knitting needles, that if I made a mistake, I'd kind of doctor it so you wouldn't notice. My scarves were lopsided. Not so anymore. The better I get (better being a relative term), the neater my stitches are. I've graduated to cute hats for my baby, and he will have a hat for every day of winter, I am sure.
Which brings me to writing.
You see, there was a time when I was just happy to have the words and the pages. The first time I wrote a novel, the very IDEA that I could write 300 pages was astonishing to me. Because I had only written poetry and short stories before I wrote Spanish Disco, when I started hitting 80 pages on my novel, I was amazed. And then I kept going. When I hit 200 pages . . . I couldn't believe it. Then I kept going. My writing was lean and spare, and I was writing 50,000 words. It was an adventure.
Since that book, my critique group added a member who can easily toss out 50 pages--just delete them as if they had never existed. The thought made me want to throw up. DELETE whole chapters? MULTIPLE chapters? But if they didn't move the plot along, or they were deeply flawed . . . they went bye-bye. The knitter in me who didn't like to rip out stitches wanted to choke.
But I've since learned. I am working on my next comedy proposal. There is a whole homage to The Wizard of Oz in it. And it's funny. But I realized the set-up was taking too long. As fast as you can say "Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore" I deleted three chapters.
I am working on a YA proposal. Same thing. I am suddenly less attached to my words and more attached to the art of it--to the finished product. If it's not working, I need to mercilessly rip the stitches out. I may save it on my hard drive in case there's something in there--some turn of a phrase I can use later. But most of the time, I don't look back, just as my finished scarf banishes the memory of the lopsided one.
Thoughts?
17 comments:
I am a "deleting whole chapters" fool. If it's broken and unfixable it has to walk the plank.
Like how I threw that cliche in there for effect? ;)
heather:
If the cliche fits . . . ;-)
I've never been one to chuck whole chapters . . . but . . . I've lost the fear. If it must go . . . it's walkin' the plank. :-)
E
So when you say *delete* are you hitting the delete key? Literally?
I can cut out large chunks, sometimes, once, I think, a chapter. But I cut it, then save it to the 'Cut' file. Never just delete and completely send those precious words away. Even if I never look at them again. I have the security of knowing they're still around. Somewhere.
M
Hi Michele:
Sometimes I just delete--if I know the chapter just is not working at all. But often if it's the tone or something, I saw it in something like a Cut file just in case.
E
I guess I am still at the 'horror' stage of throwing things out. That and I just can't (yet) step away far enough to see what is or is not working.
Guess I need to get working on a crit partner/group so I can have someone else point out the obvious to me :)
Hi Ewoh:
Like Michele points out, I do think it's good to keep old versions. But I am less afraid to let go--I think I used to hold onto it because "My God, it's pages--it's a chapter" without seeing the bigger picture of whether the book's pacing was off or the chapter was Dullsville--or the scarf was lopsided.
Erica, I've made the same journey as you, lol. In the beginning I hated to cut. My last two books I gutted and rewrote at least half, which necessitated a lot of rewriting on the first half. Like Michele, I need the security blanket of saving the old scenes.
I save backups of my files, and also have a "Keep" file for deletes.
Whole scene, whole chapters--Block and press Delete. If it ain't workin....
Erica, I love knitting, and have also gotten into crocheting. ;-) My focus seems better with the crochet, and I'm enjoying the heck out of it.
I will delete if I have to. It's hard though. and I'll save it 'just in case' and there it usually stays, 'just in case' rarely arises!
Many years ago I had a knitting phase (plain and pearl is my limit) and I knitted my partner TWO jumpers (very basic no pattern or anything, and they did feature several mistakes)!! Which I managed to shrink when washing after he'd had them for a few months!! I haven't done anything since. Not sure I could. Listening to you talk about it is making me wonder whether I should start again.... Can I even remember how to cast on????
Man, deleting just drives me crazy. I get paid by the word when it's released serially, but then six months later it's released as an ebook and I get paid royalties.
Let me tell you, that kind of training makes it SO HARD to delete. My business mind sits up and starts punching her calculator (you just deleted $40????), and my writing mind just FREAKS.
I had to delete $60 today, but I finished. Finishing makes me freak, too. If it weren't for business mind, I'd probably delete the whole darn thing!
Edie, Kathy:
Seems saving cuts is the way most of us go.
Hey Sara:
I find I love it--relaxes my brain adn lets me NOT think of all the stuff that's on my mind. I like crossword puzzles for the same reason. My mind doesn't wander to stressful topics.
E
spy:
LOL! I never thought of it that way.:-) Dickens used to get paid by the word. Hence VERY thick books. :-)
E
I'm happy to see that I'm not the only writer who cringes at the idea of deleting words. One of my critique partners told me that I write "high and tight". My longest book to date is 90K and it has a very involved plot with two subplots.
So, I hate to delete anything.
But I just cut the entire first chapter of a mystery I'm working on. It was all backstory.
Erica, I tried to knit some years ago, but my stitches were so tight after a few rows that I couldn't get them off the needle. I was told that's because I usually crochet.
Hi Liz:
I generally find, if I delete whole chapters, they're at the beginning as I am still finding my sea legs, so to speak.
E
P.S. When I first started knitting, my stitches were so tight, I would get hand cramps. Then I went too loose to compensate. NOW, I've got nice, neat rows. :-)
Hi Erica,
I know this may be an odd comment to leave. I think knitting is cool, though I don't knit. Anyway, there is a book called Chicks with Sticks by Elizabeth Lenhard that I thought you might dig. There are three books in the series. I'm reading the second book now. It's YA. I love YA books though my teen years were back in the 80's!!
Shell
Hi Shell:
Actually, I took a meeting with Dutton about four months ago--one of the managing editors, me, and my agent. When the editor wanted me to see their YA program--he brought Chicks with Sticks--LOL--and gave me a copy. :-)
It's great to see young people interested in knitting.
I wrote a story for the first edition of Knit Lit, a could of years ago. But I wrote it as a non-knitter. NOW, I could write about knitting--LOL!
E
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