Cleaning up the Mess

So, back in November I participated in 30 days of awesome hell called NaNoWriMo.  I ended up with 50,000 words of garbage, and have made it my goal for January - NaNoEdMo - to sort through it and look for anything worth saving.  Well, initially I set out intending to create a readable second draft, but...yeah.  That's not going to happen.

So how do I edit?  I normally don't get this far, so I'm making this up as I go along.  Of course, that's what I did when I first started writing.  Heck, that's what I still do, so I don't know what I'm complaining about.  Anyway, I borrow techniques from several writers I respect (note "respect," not "like").  First step is the read-through.  This is why EdMo is January and not December, besides the fact that in December you are too burned out to even think about writing.  You have to read it as though it is not your own work.  The month-long interval gives you some distance, so that you can read as a reader and not a writer.  Usually it's not as bad as you remember, at this point.

Of course, "not as bad as you thought" is not the same as "good."  On the second read-through, you are allowed to make notes about what needs to be improved - the first time through, you are not allowed to criticize.  I realized very quickly that none of the actual scenes were salvageable.  I had to create a whole new outline for the story I ended up with, rather than the story I began with.  I made notes about which scenes can be used for reference (more just to make me feel that this is a second draft and not a complete overhaul), but over half of it has to be written from scratch, and I have no idea how some of the new plot points are supposed to happen. 

In fact, looking at it all now, I realize I have two choices.  Well, three, but the third doesn't really count.  I can 1)  Add in the new scenes.  Somehow.  2) Cut down what I have and strip it down into a short story.  3)  Toss it all out and give up (You can see why this one doesn't count, but technically it is an option)

I think I might end up going with 2, and possibly taking it a step further and just making it backstory.  You see, my novel did a funny thing this year.  Around page 55, which was about halfway through the month this year, I had nothing left for the story I was trying to write.  So I wrote a slightly related story about witch hunters.  No planning, no prior imaginings, just a desperate gimmick to add words and keep creativity flowing.

Predictably, that is the part of the month I think has the best chance of being saved.

That is what happens during NaNo.  If you look at the pep talk of successful (published) NaNovelist Erin Morgenstern and her novel The Night Circus, her story is that when her NaNovel wasn't going anywhere, she sent her characters to a circus, which turned out to be much more interesting than the original story.  Now she's published and there are over a hundred requests on her book at the library, so I probably won't get to it until after break.  The point is that writing is a process of discovery.  Creation is discovery.  That's what makes it interesting, more so than arranging information into an essay or solving a math problem.  You have control over the novel, but at the same time, the novel has power over you.

Going to stop now before I get too postmodernly semantical.  Have to get back to that editing.  Or possibly that new story with the shapeshifter that's lurking in the back of my mind...