Thoughts on large-scale writing/revisions

(As promised to shaelise)

First, thank you for all your responses, suggestions, etc. Some excellent ideas that I am combing through with all my eyes open. I really, really appreciate it.

Okay, so here are a few preliminary thoughts:

meredith_wood's April 1 post talks about not making excuses for your characters. To let them be real, you have to stop shielding them from their own mistakes. (This is with regards to Jo Knowles's book Lessons from a Dead Girl, which I haven't read.)

Meredith also talks about the difference between the craft of writing, and storytelling, which brings me to my next observation: I think one element of the border between almost-there and there is that the advanced writer has control of the prose but is perhaps struggling with the story elements. Maybe the stakes aren't high enough. Maybe it takes too long at the beginning for the action to actually start. Maybe the events of the plot aren't personal enough to the MC to make the story stick for the reader.

There's a lot out there on improving the tangible, objective parts--getting rid of all those horrible, weak adverbs in favor of strong nouns and verbs. And that makes a big difference! But I think I need to learn more about that more nebulous part, the growing of the character (or at least, bringing the character that is alive to you out in such a way that your readers see that, too.)

A little yelling at the universe can be a good thing...

So maybe it won't solve your immediate problems, but it can come in useful when you funnel it into your revisions...

German asides

Okay, I'm still hot on the trail of revising properly, and again, thank you for all of the extremely useful and relevant and practical suggestions! They are very helpful.

Just a few German life things, though. First, the way to say "April Fool's!" in German is, "April, April!" (accent on second syllable). It takes about thirty seconds of this to be annoying. Luckily it only lasts a day and by the time the kids were back from school they had gotten it out of their systems.

Second, please be aware that tights form an indispensible part of the German psyche. They are called Strumpfhose, and all children (and probably many adults) wear them, regardless of gender. If your child is not wearing them, even if it's 80 degrees, you might as well have left their underwear off for the day. My boys refuse to wear them, but their friends will come over and strip to their Strumpfhose and undershirts to play, then put them back on when it's time to go. (You would NEVER think of going outside without three layers of clothes on, though!) For a few weeks my kindergartener wore them under her jeans because she wanted to be like the other kids. It didn't last long before she realized, "Das nervt mich!" (that annoys me!) Now she just wears them with a dress. So yesterday she wore a dress to kindergarten, and it was a little big for her so basically you could just see her ankles. The Strumpfhose she wanted were in the wash, and she refused to try any of the six to eight remaining pairs in her drawer. So she just put on socks. They're the same color as her Strumpfhose. Well, I picked her up after kindergarten, and the teacher said, "Frau Green, your daughter is not even wearing Strumpfhose!!! " And the whole place went dead silent, and everyone stared. No kidding. Well look, it was 60 F out there, my daughter had a winter ski coat and a courderoy dress to her ankles, and she was sweating. I think she just may survive. But I also think I've been branded as the Worst Mother of All Time. So when in doubt, bring an extra pair of Strumpfhose.