Removing the scaffolding

There’s a lot of clanging and smashing and banging going on in my laptop right now. Metaphorically speaking. I’m in the throes of removing my scaffolding. Peeling away the bridges and links and downright waffle I layer in to help me grow my story.

I can’t remember which well-known author coined the idea of the scaffolding phase of editing, but it’s stuck with me. The process of revising a first draft – for me – is just that, akin to taking the scaffolding down after a big build job, ready to unveil the result.

And it’s got me thinking, what constitutes scaffolding and why is it useful? 

What is it? Well, for me it might often include…

• the tell not show; the intent of a character or dramatic action to get you to the next point of the story
• the overtelling – more information about motivation or emotion than the reader needs to know, but you need to remember
• ‘the other’ – the other path or reaction your character could have taken, but didn’t
• a character who is no longer necessary – a conduit for the narrative whose purpose is now defunct (sorry, Conor)
• too many words – a focus on driving through with story rather than being mindful of language

And why is it useful? Why not trim as I go, take each page and paint and polish it before moving on? For me, I find creation is a process I have to lean into or else it might not happen. It never appears from the first page, but slowly emerges. So while it might be a strategy to work more precisely and carefully and edit as I go (a simple ladder rather than full on poles and planks), I do fear the idea might not then fully form. My focus might get distracted by presentation and prose and curtail the process of story making. 

So I heave up the scaffolding from the first chapter, obscuring the true look and feel of the story beneath its clumsy façade. But heck, it makes me love the moment when it comes off – when I can start to see the final work, the big reveal when the props are taken away.

As to the scaffolding, I keep every bit. My mantra in life, it might come back in fashion, is also applied to my writing; I dread throwing anything away. So I keep a 'scaffolding' document that often, quite alarmingly, ends up being as long as the manuscript itself. Small parts of it can come in useful, once in a blue moon (similarly, the fashion comeback; ahem, flares are back).

The scary thing, of course, is you often have no idea what the end result will look like until all the scaffolding is off. Until you can stand back and read the story in full again. It is a risk. Especially if your deadline is in three weeks’ time. But fingers crossed for something like... (😉)

Alex Cotter’s middle-grade novels THE HOUSE ON THE EDGE and THE MERMAID CALL are published with Nosy Crow. She has also previously published YA novels as Alex Campbell. Find her at www.alexcotter.co.uk or on Twitter: @AlexFCotter