Uncovering The Story - The After Process

UNCOVERING THE STORY

As someone who has written a lot of first drafts, and someone who's also come back to those first drafts and had to change and rewrite a lot, I thought that today I would talk a little about what goes into discovering the underlying story during revisions and editing. Now I want to be clear that I do not think that you're not already aware of what story you've told. You go into drafting (as either a planner or not) knowing what story you want to tell, but sometimes that is not the only thing that ends up on the page.

For example, I went into writing the first Lights Out book with a completely different story in mind. I don't mean everything was wildly different, but I do mean that it was only going to be a standalone at the start. It wasn't until later, having written about two thirds of it, that I became aware of a deeper story buried underneath, and from that the trilogy was born.

The same can happen when you come back to revise or edit after having had some time away from your project. You're looking at it with fresh eyes and you're realising that there are maybe themes you didn't see before, or there's a subplot that you hadn't realised was there, and you can start to see the broader strokes, and also the tiny ones beneath the surface that might have passed you by while you were drafting.

It took me a long time of being a writer to be able to pick up on those finer points. While I was very aware of the plot, or the subplots and also of what story I was telling, sometimes there would be hints of something more, and then you have to make that conscious decision whether to lean into it more. One of my past editors was very good at letting me know when I'd hit a theme or a subplot that might work for the book overall and how to bring it all to the surface.

Not seeing themes doesn't mean you don't know your own work. Sometimes they are easy to see, sometimes they aren't, and other times, because you wrote the book, those themes won't have the same meaning to you as they might to a reader down the line.

So how do you go about doing it?

#1 SEARCH FOR COMMON THEMES
By this I mean things like tropes that might be subverted, or things like when a character is going through something that broadens their scope. For example in Lights Out, Lock is sure of one thing at the start, but as she grows and changes, as I uncovered more of her story, more of her sense of self, I realised that there was a theme of her standing up for what was right, no matter the consequences to her.

With Jessie, in Cramping Chronicles, there's a lot of talk about how she's not anything more than a teenager with an ability that puts her in the spotlight a lot. She has so many thoughts and feelings about what she's doing and how she does it, that she loses sight almost of all the good she does, because everything is wrapped up in pain for her.

So when it comes to your own story, search for those common themes, whether they be tropes that sound and seem like they're going to go one way, and actually go another, and lean into them. Whether that's making a character's voice stronger, or whether that's making different choices for them, it's completely up to you.

#2 CHARACTERS MATTER
I've been told over the years that my belief that my characters have more control over where my story goes than I do, is silly because they're not real. I agree they're not real, but that doesn't mean they're not shaped into a being and because of that, because of the time you spend writing them, you start to see that they, as a person, as a well formed character, would make completely different choices maybe than the ones you planned for them to make.

For me, I've been very big on making sure my characters are as fully fleshed out as possible. The story is about them. It's about what they're going through and how they react to any given thing. So for me it matters greatly if a character is telling me they wouldn't do this thing, because that means I've done my job well.

So keep in mind how any given character would react, and if you can, let them lead you through the story and out the other side. You might find that you learn something new, and your work can be all the better for it.

So there we go, two tips to get you started. As always, good luck, and if you have any questions, lemme know in the comments!

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