Draw it Out!

I just started the next round of editing on my book this week, The Fourth State of Matter. Looking good so far, but it did get me thinking about my previous round of editing. On the last round I had to make some drastic changes to a few scenes for the sake of the plot. The difficulty I faced was that I knew what scenes needed to be changed, but not how they needed to be changed. So, I turned to my second love.

Art.

Whenever I'm not sure what to do with a scene, I draw it out. If I can envision the scene well enough to draw it on paper, then I can put it into words. Plus, I find things easier to describe when I literally have a picture to look at.

So, meet Xavis. One of the main characters in the book (although not the main character). Here he is, at peace in his garden on their spaceship. The lighting was a lot of fun to play with, and in drawing it I realized that the important part of this scene I needed to keep was the feeling of brightness and tranquility that the garden inspires. What they are actually doing in the garden doesn't matter, so long as the feeling stays the same.

That is probably the most important thing I have found about editing so far. The exact order and details of a scene don't matter, so long as the emotion is preserved.

This is what I will keep in mind on this new round of editing, and while I hope i won't have to drastically alter any more scenes, I will continue making artwork of them nonetheless. I love seeing the characters come to life under my own hand, not just through words, but through colors and images as well.