A Plot that Matures With the Author

An interesting thought visited me as I sat around procrastinating today. Are stories that get picked up quickly by agents/publishers cheated out of becoming as great as they can be?

My first ever manuscript, Project Second Shadow, has had its home in the crucible of my imagination, as well as on paper for years. Every time it moves from the former to the latter, it comes out somehow better. There are always different takes on scenes, or entirely new ones that come to life when I revisit the story. Powerful elements that wouldn't be there, had the book been picked up by someone.

This book is leagues better now than the first version was. I know most people's instincts are the same as mine- "well, it wasn't ready after the first version." I get that. But in the countless re-imaginings since then, I've found the story and writing to be comparable to bookshelf quality. Still, it isn't published, so I continue to improve it.

I'm beginning to think that immediate publication might actually stunt the growth of a manuscript, which is a rather encouraging thought for someone like me. Has anyone else had a similar experience with this? Or do you disagree completely?

 

Well, complete disagreement makes for a rather black or white engagement, but there certainly are examples of stories that found new life after their initial publication.

Arthur C. Clarke's The City and the Stars (1956) is the third published iteration of the story, a revised and expanded version of the second iteration.

Its second iteration was Against the Fall of Night (1951), a revised and expanded version of the first iteration.

Its first iteration was a novela of the same title as the second iteration, published in 1948 in Startling Stories magazine.

The first two of David Gerrold’s War Against the Chtorr novels had difficulty finding a publisher and were initially published by Timescape Books, which aimed its publications at a more YA audience (80’s YA, not present-day YA), and Gerrold had to remove some significant political and sexual content from the books. Bantam Books picked up the series and re-issued books 1 and 2 with their redacted content restored and then the 3rd and 4th books as well.

 

Good old Art. He did something similar with his short story The Sentinel. He expanded it into a novelization of the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey at the same time as Kubrick was writing the screenplay. It was a weird process though, as Kubrick's usually are. They did talk about story ideas, but neither knew exactly what the other was doing, so movie and novel are different.

 

Not to mention the numerous novels that started as short stories and were later expanded into full fledged novels like Ender's Game, A Canticle For Leibowitz, and Flowers For Algernon, to name a few.

 

That's a common idea among beginning writers, but I'll be honest. It doesn't matter. Stories are transitory. Plots are a dime a dozen. If you just sit on your one big story forever because you don't want to rush it, what happens? You never do anything useful. The only thing that makes you better is writing. There is no "one grand idea" that is all you will ever write. You will always come up with new ideas. They're everywhere. Stop procrastinating and get to work.

 

Probably not. Having read a lot of Ya books I can definitely say a lot off those published books read like a rushed newbies first draft.

Depends what you're going for. I think some of the romances I read though sloppy were still fun, entertaining reads. Beats leaving them in a dresser drawer or a computer file when someone was actually gonna pay money for them but ... I think if you're going for something a little risky or special then yeah I'd sit on the draft a while. I have one book that no one will ever see the light of day of if I can help it - I may rework it if I have the time because the idea is really good but the execution was so pitiful. I did three drafts - one third, one first person attempting to imitate Nabokov, and went back to third because the first person was so horrible. And looking back on it - the executed idea is so uneven - deeply dark and powerful in spots, but overall really crude and juvenile that I'm glad I never attempted to shop it around.
So yeah, I think with certain projects and certain levels of writing skill don't rush to publish.

 

Realize I threw myself a little under the bus I live in by saying I was procrastinating lol. I do write more than one story/series. The one I referred to in the beginning of the thread isn't published, but I do have one out on amazon, with a sequel done and a third on the way. Still, great responses from everyone. I never knew Arthur Clarke's books were re-imaginings, so that's definitely encouraging.

Thanks for the variety of responses, guys. Of course, I'm always looking to get published. That's goal #1. But, if my work grows through rejection along the way, that's all the better. I have utter confidence in my stories (which I didn't, always). I think they have what it takes to stir emotion and thought for years to come, and I think stories like that sometimes take a bit longer to take off. They're not bite-size market pleasing genre pieces. I know many people might see it as an excuse or delusion, but it was a long journey for me to find that confidence. I hope everyone gets there someday.

Those in that boat with me, we all just need some time.

 

I've learned that a story just has to be good enough for the publisher, editor or agent to work with. Since I started publishing I've been lucky to work with some really great editors who push rewrites and rewrites, tighten things up and are able to help me produce work that is at a level I find very hard to reach on my own. I believe these editors (I'm not talking about someone you hire but someone whose job it is to get your writing ready for publication) are an important part of the equation. Sometimes there's light editing. Other times there's quite a bit. But working with the right editor is a game changer.

Still, it's so hard to reach that level. I grasp at it again and again with the best I can do. I write and revise everyday. I'm not trying to take forever to get everything just right because even doing that there will still be changes before something is published. But I do like to have a brief delusion that my work is perfect before I submit it. I would like to think I'm easy to work with because I'm not married to what's on the page. I see how these changes, well, change everything in some way. I'm my case it has always been for the better.

I don't think any first draft really nails it. I lose track of drafts and revisions. Yes, it can go on for quite awhile, even when your goal is to produce something "good enough." Good enough has to be really good still. Publishing standards don't change whether you are trying to publish a first draft or a story you've been working on for ten years. You have to know when your work is there, but be prepared to follow edits and make many changes if that's what whoever is buying your work wants. I trust the professionals I work with. Sure, I can say I'm a professional writer, but a lot of that has to do with the publishers who bought my work, knowing they had the right editor for the job.

It's important to be smart about where you send your work because you want a good editor. Luck probably has something to do with it. Maybe a lot to do with it. And sometimes, not always, there can be quite a bit of work to do even after you sell something or land an agent. I think good enough is just as hard to reach as good, and, honestly, good enough should feel like the best thing you've ever written. That's how you sell a story that's good enough. How long it takes you to get there is up to your efforts and abilities.

 

I just wanted to add, I'm a big fan of rewriting and revision. It's a reluctant passion but also where the real work is. I've spent about a month with my latest short story. It's changed so much since the early drafts. The early drafts would not have been picked up. I worked on it like crazy over the weekend to get this one out. My plan was to give it a quick final read this morning and send it.

However, as I was trying to fall asleep last night, potential changes flooded my brain. I normally ignore such things, but this didn't feel like overthinking. So, yeah, the story isn't quite there yet, but it's close. I would like to believe I have a real shot with this one. That feeling is there that at least in this moment it feels like the best thing I've ever written. I really hope I get to work with a great editor when it sells.

It's not rushed because there are always new stories to tell in new ways. As we grow as writers, are work matures and improves. That's something ongoing and will always be true. Do you want to write the same novel for ten years or do you want to write a few in that same time? I think we always write what we're supposed to when we're supposed to. Not everything will be published, but I do think we have to write and work on a few duds to prepare us for the next great thing.

 

I don't tend to sit on things too long or become to precise about one idea. If I have a dozen, I try not to think of one of them as my magnum opus because then I'm just cheating the others. Once it's written it written to me. And if the goal of publishing was met, then does it matter?

I struggle with the brain-storming phase. I often get ideas that I feel are to 'big' for my level of experience and I know I wont do the idea justice. I have the problem of wanting to make it better before I start.

 

Depends on how mature the author is in writing. There's no set way to go about getting work published, and individual goals are diverse. Some might want to get a foot in and good enough is a success. These published works are probably not the greatest they could have been. As those authors get more works out there, they get successively more proficient and their works gets better and better.

Others may want to do the best that they are capable of from the get-go of the first published work, so they work on maturing as a writer first through multiple drafts and errors made without the immediate goal of publishing. That's where I come from. I don't have many ideas, just the one story which my heart is set on. I will be content to publish that one, and yes, I want it to be the best it can be and shine.

 

Personally, I have a problem where I cannot leave something well enough alone. I could write a masterpiece and as long as it wasn't published and was in a word document on my computer, I would not be able to resist the urge to go back and change a word here, add a scene here, add dialogue there. The act of getting it published would be the only way to get me to stop and accept a final version. Hell, I did this in college, The report would have been done for a day or two but I would be tweaking up to the point I hit the 'print' button.

There is nothing wrong with trying to make sure the work you put out is the best quality you can do, but at some point, changes become just cosmetic and have no actual impact on the work quality. Stagnation kills. For someone like me, 'I could make it better' becomes an excuse for not moving forward. Eventually I need to smack myself in the head and tell myself to move forward.

 

I absolutely love the phrase "the delusion that it's perfect". I've experienced this every time I've worked with an editor too! I edit and revise until I feel comfortable sitting back and saying "ah, nothing could make this better". Then a second set of professional eyes thinks up a thousand ways to make it better lol.