Well, late Tuesday night I finished. I reached 'The End'. It was fantastic, and I literally floated all day yesterday (like Mary Poppins). I also blogged about it here.
As I let that manuscript breathe, my thoughts have turned towards preparing for the next stage of the process.
I have always preferred editing/revisions to first drafts - but that's when it comes to short stories and articles. In my experience with those, its a much more enjoyable process to adjust, clip, reword, rewrite, and extend, then it is to just push it out of your mind and onto the paper (or screen).
Now I'm looking at my first novel length work, and the best visual description I can use to explain how I feel about trying to edit the whole project is this:
So I'm looking to you for suggestions:
Where do you start?
What resources/books/websites/blogs/experiences authors do you turn to?
How do you tackle a project like this?
I have not written a novel, but something I tell my writing students to do after they finish their essays is to create a reverse outline. For them it means taking their thesis and topic sentences out of their essay onto a new page to check for the flow of their argument and the strength of their assertions. For a novel revision this might mean mapping the plot and subplots to check the logical flow of events and action. A couple of novels I have read recently seem to drop the logic of events between major action and/or repeat nearly the same events to create a particular feeling. When you take the major action out of the language you have couched it in you can see it in a different way. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteOoh, what a fantastic idea! Love that!
DeleteKasey's right - it's a really good idea, and I'm definitely going to experiment with it. Thanks for taking the time to share.
DeleteUmmm... I'm with you. It looks so impossible to stare at a manuscript in all it's tangled glory. I say set aside a copy that you don't touch (in case you don't like the revisions) and take it chapter by chapter. Feel free to start in the middle or the end. Just get it where you can show it and then let test readers help you find the weak spots instead of trying to flush them all out by yourself. I'm so happy for you!
ReplyDeleteOooh, 'tangled glory'....I like that phrasing. It perfectly describes the maze image, and my novel. And thanks for the suggestions, and for stopping by to comment.
DeleteI agree somewhat with Tapper- I think sometimes the best thing to do is to just push it out the door and let some test readers take a crack at it. Of course, I know I wouldn't want to do that until I'd been over it with a fine-tooth comb myself, so that part I can't help you with! But I recently did a test read on a YA novel and I had so much fun critiquing it- I realized that so many times I read published books with various errors (either grammatical or plot-based) that drive me BONKERS because I know I can't do anything about them, but I love the story and I feel like the story gets ruined with all the distracting errors. Getting my hands on a good book before it's too late to make it better was SO refreshing! And not to sound cocky or anything, but I'm really excited for the author to get the opportunity to make her book better once she sees my critiques, because I know so many of them are things she's going to see and go, "DUH! How did I miss that?" We all get caught up in the moment when we're first-drafting, and I know I am always surprised by how much I can miss, and by how much getting outside critiques helps me to make my story and writing stronger.
ReplyDeleteSo anyway, once you're ready to send your baby out in the world, you can send her my way. :-)
Ohhh, I love offers for beta readers, and if you love critiquing, I will definitely take you up on that one! Thanks for the advice.
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