Sympathy for Drafts
Novel length writing is a circuitous process
I was editing the fourth serial chapter of Sympathy about a month ago when I realized I’d gotten what I needed from the exercise.
Sympathy for Monsters is not a new project, I completed a novel length first draft of the story three years ago. I set it aside to work on a different project, rewriting the novel length second draft of another story. In the first version of Sympathy Conrad Gordon is called John Conrad, Frank doesn’t exist yet, and the draft flows like a hundred and ten thousand words of stream of conscious post apocalyptica, which is great because that’s what first drafts are meant to do.
I have a strict process when I’m finish a draft. First I hate it, then I forget about it, then about a year later I rewrite it.
When I revisited Sympathy I had been a long time away from writing, owing to the birth of Camille and all the life stuff that happens right after you have a child. I was ready, more than anything else, to stretch my legs and experiment.
The first person tweet format was a fascinating exercise, especially when interleaved with third person prose. The formats were in dialog with themselves, just by virtue of proximity; even without spending the time to rework them until they truly sang. I believe there’s potential in that format for short fiction, but the amount of work it would take to produce something novel length would be better spent elsewhere.
As a writer, the interplay between formats illuminated the contours of the characters, especially Conrad. All flows outward from character, and so Conrad’s sharper lines revealed more of the landscape of the world he lives in; and the role of the Weird, the chaotic force that has pervaded life in the Wastes ever since the apocalypse.
Now I’m back to plotting. Chapter by chapter, pulling story arcs out of the characters, now that I know them better. Those arcs will affect them in turn, and their changes will affect the world I built for them, and so goes the push and pull of writing and rewriting long stories.
Sympathy for Monsters was always meant to be a novel, and it’s a lot closer today than it was several months ago when I pulled that first draft back out from under my bedside table.
A lot of you read it, and for that I’m appreciative. Thanks guys. I can’t wait to show you what’s next.