Revising the Monstrous

Finally, I am able to focus on finishing revising and editing the third draft of Monstrous, my second horror novel. There is much happening in the world, between the pandemic, and the horrific civil-rights violations in the U.S. that have derailed my attention, but I am starting to manage more effectively amid this mass anxiety and tension. 

Completing this revision has been a long time coming, but I believe there is much good in my little book.

Well, maybe not so little. The work Monstrous stands at about 178,000 words or 800 pages, give or take last scenes I am adding and rewrites to the resolution. I consider it a little long. Originally, I had planned a shorter book than my debut horror novel Town & Train, published at about 129,000 words.

My partner has already gently joked that I have completely transformed into Professor Grady Tripp from Michael Chabon's Wonder Boys. Tripp cannot finish his second novel (at an unwieldy 2,611-pages!) and has fallen into a chronic pot-smoking habit. If you haven't read the novel or seen the Michael Douglas flick, I cannot recommend either enough. 

So my concern remains—at nearly 180,000 words, I think the manuscript is too much for everyone to beta-read. (A beta reader is someone who looks at a manuscript for the first time and then responds to the novelist's questions, and gives them advice on improving it.)  

The goal now is to reduce the book to a much tighter 150,000 words or less if possible. I'm looking at these revisions and it's a bit of a brain-bender, but I am hoping to do most of the revisions before June's end. Or as my publisher once told me about revisions to Train, it's not like I am writing it; I am unwriting it in a way.

So where and how to cut?

I have experienced certain epiphanies, after much struggling and wringing of hands.

Have no fear—my partner and publisher agree. The former has read the first few chapters, in various stages; the latter has seen none of it. They strongly advise cutting the first few chapters or backstory. 

So...I am working on that. All of my players are converging at a remote place, but they take about 200 pages, give or take, to get there. 

I have had to ask myself, then, does all of this backstory add to the current story? 

Keep in mind that I also have a repeating chorus of interludes throughout the novel, harkening back to an incident in 1989 that altered the key players for their rest of their lives, creating the protagonists, as well as changing someone into an antagonist who figures strongly in the story. If I am being vague, this is extremely deliberate—the art of not spoiling the broth before the reader enjoys it.

So, essentially, it makes more sense for the characters to converge at the present setting sooner, at the outset of the story. From there, I can tease out the interludes from '89 and any references to their travelling to the current setting. 

It's a horror yarn, but really the book is also about the past, how it shapes us, how we keep moving in our own journeys, and whether we carry the past with us or move forward. 

My players' time on the road and their interactions is, then, additional backstory. These are the proverbial darlings that I must kill.  

Aw, hells, so now I also understand that most of the protagonist's hitchhiking to the remote setting can be alluded to, not described chapter-by-chapter. In his  travels, my hero has some fine interactions with other characters and insights, but there is a significant loss of tension in these protracted scenes. 

Most of the other details the reader can deduce for themselves. Any backstories "from the road" I can work in. The more I consider this reduction, the more I think this editorial move only strengthens the narrative.

Sara Jasmine, for example, can allude to her interview at McGill University for an instructor position, or openly gay Dave can bemoan no longer speaking to his best buddy with whom he had a fling. And why did John Newman, now in his late thirties, hitchhike westward across the U.S. and eastward across Canada, staying off the grid all the while, as though the devil was at his heels? 

Stay tuned to find out, faithful reader. 

Carrying on, through back roads and dark highways, under the light of the moon.