We are at the back end of a long overdue home remodel. We’ve been displaced for five months and are preparing to move back as I type this. I was involved in part of the demolition of a 90-year-old house and then turned the real work over to the professionals. While ripping out cabinets, floors, sinks, and everything that makes a house a home, the similarities between remodeling a house and revising a story hit me like the dust from a plaster and lathe wall demo.
The first thing is that you must have a house to work on. I know this might sound like common sense, but to revise a story, one has to have a story. So, if you want your story to be as shiny and new as possible, you need the bones of an old house to improve. Get the words down. Write the first draft. Make your idea real.
Once it’s real, it can be improved.
The second thing is you have to be willing to grab the sledgehammer, rear back, and be willing to tear things up. Like the old commercial said, “If you want to make mayonnaise, you need to break some eggs.” Like my kitchen and my antiquated bathrooms, I have to tear down and break my first draft and start with the good bones that are left.
The third thing is to have a plan and a schedule and be willing to find help when necessary. We have had to make so many decisions over the past five months and I hate making remodeling/home decor decisions. I’m terrible at it. My coping mechanism was to find three or four possible choices for everything from faucets to cabinet pulls to floor stains and then decide from there which one we liked the best.
Revising a story is also filled with decision after decision. Killing your darlings, plot point problems, character development, etc., are part of revision decisions where coming up with several possible solutions for an issue might help find the perfect solution. And when in doubt, bring in critique partners, editors, or readers to help make those decisions.
Well, I have to run. There are boxes to unpack, a room to paint, and people ready to settle back into our “new” house.
Happy remodeling, fellow writers! Keep working and things often turn out fine in the end.
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