The Journey of Writing a Novel

Bitterblue was named a New York Times Book Review Notable Children’s Book of 2012. 

The New York Times in their review said,
“Some authors can tell a good story; some can write well. Cashore is one of the rare novelists who do both. Thrillingly imagined and beautifully executed, “Bitterblue” stands as a splendid contribution in long literary tradition.”

To celebrate Karen Cashore has posted the story of the journey of writing her novel BITTERBLUE, complete with examples of written pages. 

She writes all her books longhand. That alone is quite a feat to me. I’d be lost without my computer.

Below are some of the things she showed and talked about:

What you see above is fairly typical: I write, I scratch out a word here and there, I scratch out a line, I change things; then I put it away for the day, come back the next day, realize the entire thing is crap, and cross the whole page out with a big X.

Once I’ve written 40 or 50 pages — or, essentially, get to a point  where I’m starting to worry about the house burning down (though I do  keep my notebook in a fireproof, waterproof safe) — I transcribe my  handwriting into my Word document using voice recognition software (because I can’t type much at all without pain). The transcription, like every other moment when I’m looking at my work, is an opportunity for crossing more things out (symbolically) and changing things.

That’s my essential process for every book. But, of course, there’s more to it. For example, while I write, I scribble cheery, encouraging notes to myself.

I am skipping a lot of info that Karen shared, but after three years and 800 pages, she finished the first draft and sent it off to her editor, Kathy Dawson.  When Kathy got back to her after reading the manuscript, this is how the  conversation:

Kathy Dawson: “This is going to sound like a crazy idea, but now, at the beginning of the revision process, is the time to voice crazy ideas. Would you consider starting again from scratch?”

Karen:  !!!!!!!!
*insert nervous breakdown*
*insert perspective*
*insert reconsideration*
*insert realization that she is 100% right*

Here’s the reason this ended up being the best thing my editor could have said. Within that 800-page mess, the final story was all there. If you were to read Bitterblue‘s first draft, you would come away with essentially the same story a person reading the final book comes away with. But there was a lot of extra, unnecessary stuff in there, too; I’d spent a lot of space working things out for myself that didn’t really need to be worked out for the reader.

There were extra characters who could be consolidated into fewer people to simplify things. There were plot complications that didn’t need to be so complicated. The themes were buried in crap; they weren’t shining. There was an earthquake! (Literally. One plot point was an earthquake.) The story I was trying to tell didn’t need an earthquake.

Now, normally when revising, I sit down with the printout of the draft I have and start crossing things out, working with what I’ve got, molding, trying to change the shape of an existing thing into something new. But here was my editor suggesting I start again from scratch.

I put the draft to the side, where I could reach it, but where it wasn’t right in front of me. I pulled a blank sheet of paper toward me. And I played what was essentially a mental trick on myself: instead of determining to decide what to get rid of, what to change the shape of, what to mold, I said to myself, “I’m writing a book. La la la, here I am, writing a brand new book. Hmm. What, from this pile to my side, might I add?“

Cutting a lot more out of Karen’s journey; the second draft of Bitterblue took Karen about five months, “if I recall correctly. Five and a half? Easily the longest revision of my life so far.”

And what happened after she finished Draft 2?

Her editor continued to send her amazing, helpful letters; friends read and gave feedback; and she revised it several more times. In total it took her four years to finish. 

Here is the Link: http://kristincashore.blogspot.com/2012/12/pictures-of-book-being-made.html. It is a good read.

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Talk tomorrow,

Kathy