Revising is like bedroom closets

I watched the show Hoarders for the first time a few days ago. Have you seen it? Oh my gosh, that show makes me want to cry! And then hyperventilate from the claustrophobia. And then empty my house of every single thing not required to live.

On the show, the lady's house was actually even worse than this one! She had to be pretty close to the ceiling as she was climbing over things.

Doesn't it make you start looking for escape routes? Obviously keeping every cool thing you come across isn't a good idea.

Which brings me to what I'm really talking about. Drafting is like bedroom closets.

When you're drafting, you come across so many cool things! Things you pick up that you want to take home and include in your own manuscript. Like things that happened to your main character. Sure it happened before the story started, but they shaped WHO THE CHARACTER IS. Some are cool things in the setting. Sure they don't move the plot forward, but THEY ARE JUST SO INTERESTING. Sometimes it's a subplot that went in a direction you weren't even expecting, and you ran with it because it was SO MUCH FUN. Sometimes you see a character in a movie or in a book that so enthralled you, you want a character with some of those traits in your book too. Sure, developing them has eaten a lot of words and isn't integral to the plot, but YOU LOVE THEM.

And doing all of that is PERFECTLY FINE. Really. Because during that "bring stuff home" phase, you might discover that element of your story that is the equivalent to the perfect pair of jeans that you don't think your wardrobe could live without.

It's really okay to have a draft that looks like this closet.

But let's face it: it can't stay that way. Readers will start looking for escape routes. That closet needs cleaned and organized.

Which brings me to my actual point. Revising is also like bedroom closets.

Have you ever stood in front of your bedroom closet and thought I have nothing to wear, even though there were tons of clothes in there? Sometimes there is so much STUFF, you can hardly see what's good. If you go through and toss anything that doesn't HAVE to be in there, then suddenly you feel like you can breathe again AND see what you really have to work with. It isn't hidden behind a bunch of stuff that may or may not have been cool, but is nonetheless adding in a positive way to your wardrobe.

Same goes for manuscripts. If there is so much extra stuff in it, regardless of how awesome it is, it can make it hard to see the plot. It clutters the story. It hides the truly good parts.

And then when all of the extra is gone, you can take a good look at the closet and think, No wonder I felt like I had nothing to wear. I only have two skirts! I don't have many dress shirts! I need a new pair of pants!

And just as easily, when you look at a manuscript without any clutter, you can see I need more description here! This plot turn would be stronger if I built up the opposite emotion right before it! My character just did something he/she had no motivation to do! You'll actually be able to SEE what changes need to be made.

And in the end you'll be left with a manuscript that the equivalent of a closet you can't stop staring at because everything in it's so darn perfect.

Happy revising everyone!
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