LAYERING AS YOU GO: PART 1

I WRITE ONLY TO REWRITE. Those words were hammered into my brain at a writing workshop many years ago. Getting words on the page is the only way to reach “The End.”

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For some, “I write only to rewrite,” means blazing through a book without pause, not daring to reread or tweak a single sentence for fear of losing momentum. The goal is to “finish,” then flesh out later. For others, “I write only to rewrite” means painstakingly polishing every word, sentence and paragraph before moving on to the next.

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I’m somewhere in the middle.

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So as we head into these final days of Speedbo 2014, let’s plan that when April 1 rolls around that we’ll each take a few minutes to evaluate what worked and what didn’t work for us personally—and how we can apply what we’ve learned to the writing months ahead.

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For me, layering one sentence at a time doesn’t allow me the freedom to let my fingers fly across the keyboard as a scene unfolds in my mind nor does it radically add to my needed daily word count. On the other hand, because I have a publisher-mandated book length (only 60K), I find that when I blaze through without any “layering” at all, I have difficulty keeping track of where I am and how much room I truly have available to tell my story.

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I’ve learned the hard way that, for me, hurtling along at a bare-bones-style gallop can be deceptive. The times I’ve done that and returned to the “completed” manuscript to layer for clarification and added dimension, inevitably I discover I’ve crammed too much “story” into my story and needed layering significantly overshot my contracted word count length. I’d also underestimated the time it takes to go back to the beginning and layer an entire book.

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So, instead of having my story under control and in a fairly “clean” condition as the clock ticked toward my looming deadline, I’d be scrambling to flesh out or say bye-bye to paragraphs, scenes and entire chapters in order to reshape the story to fit its mandated length. I hated thinking of the hours of over-writing that I’d done.

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That’s why layering as you go works best for me.

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Since I only have 60-90 minutes to write each morning, if I meet my daily word count goal and have a little time remaining, I pause to layer what I’ve written. Or, when I can, I carve out 15-20 minutes in the evening or maybe a little time on the weekends to exercise my layering muscles. Although when I reach “The End” I do reread, trim and layer further, I have a much cleaner product to work with and feel more in control of the story and my time.

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So what IS this “layering” I’m talking about that can add significantly to word count?  For me, it’s taking a bare bones narrative or unbroken stretches of internal/external dialogue and enriching it, making it come alive.

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Layering can include (but isn’t limited to):

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- Clarifying speaker attribution. (Have you ever been reading along in a book and gotten tripped up on who is talking?).

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- Authenticating the setting.

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- Controlling the pacing.

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- Focusing on the senses: seeing, hearing, taste, touch, smell.

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- Providing body movement and facial expression.

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- Adding emotional triggers.

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- Weaving in internal dialogue and character “voice” for deep point of view.

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- Varying sentence structure.

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- Ending a scene with turn-the-page power.

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- And yes, sometimes layering means trimming for increased impact.

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I personally find it daunting to reach The End with hundreds of barebones pages of talking heads or stretches of unbroken narrative and internal dialogue awaiting my attention as the contracted book deadline looms.

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So for me, layering as I go is, well, the way to go!

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What works for you?

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Next month we’ll take a closer look at some of the elements of layering that I’ve mentioned here. But TODAY please share with us how YOU layer your scenes! Do you write the whole book non-stop, then return to the beginning? Do you make each sentence shine before venturing on to the next? Or do you get down a barebones page, scene or chapter, then pause to layer at that point?

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Wishing you all the very best in these final days of Speedbo!!

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Glynna

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If you’d like to be entered in a drawing for a copy of my April Love Inspired release, “Pine Country Cowboy,” please mention it in the comments section, then check our Weekend Edition for the winner announcement!

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Glynna Kaye’s debut book “Dreaming of Home” was a finalist in the ACFW Carol and Maggie awards, as well as a first place winner of the “Booksellers Best” and “Beacon” awards. Her 4 1/2 star “At Home In His Heart” was chosen as a Reviewers Choice finalist by national magazine RT Book Reviews. “Pine Country Cowboy,” her seventh Love Inspired book (and the sixth set in the mountain country of Arizona), is available now—and there’s a Christmas story releasing in November!

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No Place Like Home. Abby Diaz longs to reestablish a relationship with her father, so she heads to Canyon Springs, her Arizona hometown, with a painful past she can’t share with anyone. But then she’s needed to care for her young nephew. The little boy takes a shine to a happy-go-lucky cowboy, a handsome man who’s everything Abby can never have. The more time she spends with Brett, the more she realizes he’s harboring a heartache of his own. As she works on repairing family ties with her father, Abby knows that opening up to Brett is key to forging a new future...together.