So a while ago, I wrote a post about “The Story Behind Invincible,” and in that post, I briefly explained the process of the revision runs of Invincible, but never actually went into full detail about them. So here I am today, providing an answer to yet another behind-the-scenes question.
So, how much did Invincible change between the rough draft and its final result? Well, I’ll tell you.
The First Draft
The rough draft of Invincible was a little around 47,000 words long. In other words, that’s means there were less than 200 pages in the original draft.
To be honest,
the storyline was pretty much all there in that first draft:
-Troy wakes up in Brad’s home, doesn’t know who he is
-Troy’s re-discovery of his super-hearing, leading to his fight with Rick
-Troy’s training scenes
-Troy wakes up in Brad’s home, doesn’t know who he is
-Troy’s re-discovery of his super-hearing, leading to his fight with Rick
-Troy’s training scenes
-Troy decides to
become Lion-Man
-Troy, Jack, and Taylor’s bonding moments
-Hector and Davidson
-Troy, Jack, and Taylor’s bonding moments
-Hector and Davidson
-The high school
invasion
-Troy
re-discovering his Iarnamian past
-The finale at the Ambassador Bridge
-Troy and Taylor’s discussion at the end
So believe it or not, the structure was exactly the same as when I first wrote it. I think the only change that I applied before going into the second draft would be changing unnecessary sentence and shorting them. Ex: “I slowly shift my head to the black wooden, four legged chair, only to see know no person sitting there.” And for obvious reasons, it got changed to “I turn my head to the empty seat.” If you’re one of those writers where sometimes you’re feeling yourself and try to sound all authory, you’ll understand.
-The finale at the Ambassador Bridge
-Troy and Taylor’s discussion at the end
So believe it or not, the structure was exactly the same as when I first wrote it. I think the only change that I applied before going into the second draft would be changing unnecessary sentence and shorting them. Ex: “I slowly shift my head to the black wooden, four legged chair, only to see know no person sitting there.” And for obvious reasons, it got changed to “I turn my head to the empty seat.” If you’re one of those writers where sometimes you’re feeling yourself and try to sound all authory, you’ll understand.
I pretty much call the two rounds of revisions after the first draft "the second draft.” The reason for that is because I learned so much from those two revisions that I simply call them the second draft, because saying “I learned this from Revision 1”, or “I found this out in Revision 2” seem a little much.
So in the final inning (Ironic, seeing as I’m not even a sports fan), I added 1,000 words, totaling the final draft in at about 56,000 words, exactly 203 pages on Microsoft Word. I added a few more subtle changes, and did a lot more copy-editing (because really, who wants to read bad grammar and punctuation, eh?). The biggest challenge came from making sure Troy’s character arc was the way it was supposed to. Did this character go from Point A to B? Was that journey consistent? Did it pay off? Luckily, that part wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be, and I got the results with great satisfaction.
So basically, the process for me was nothing more than a little bit of tweaking (Well, not just tweaking, but you get the idea). For me, the first draft was building a skeleton, and the journey to get it to the final draft was simply adding flesh and blood, and muscles and weight to it.
All in all, the revision process on Invincible was almost as amazing as an experience than it was actually writing. It was my first time really revising my work, so I didn’t know what to expect. But all writers are different. Our styles are always going to be distinct from one another, in writing and in editing. And yeah, it may not feel right the first time, but that’s okay. My editing with Invincible was one of its kind, and given what I’ve learned and what I can and can not do, my editing experience with the sequels will be one of a kind also.
So I guess the small advice I’ll give to you is to take your time and learn from it. You’ll become a better writer (and person) because of it!